Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan does not add up to be a good deal for most Americans.
The businessman and Republican presidential nominee’s signature tax proposal is a regressive plan that would unfairly hurt low-income and middle class Americans by requiring them to pay more in taxes while giving a big tax break to the rich.
Cain has risen in the polls based on his folksy and brash style, his business experience, being a nonpolitician and his bold 9-9-9 tax plan. The plan calls for a flat 9 percent personal income tax and corporate tax, plus a new national sales tax of 9 percent.
Cain denies that his plan would hurt those making the least. But most liberal and conservative tax experts who have looked at the plan say that it does.
An independent analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank said in a release this week that Cain’s tax proposal would increase taxes on 84 percent of U.S. households, hitting low- and medium-income households the hardest. The analysis said that households making $10,000 to $20,000 would see a tax increase averaging $2,705–an increase of nearly 950 percent.
However the rich would get big tax cuts under Cain’s plan according to the analysis.
Under Cain’s plan, current taxes on income, payroll, capital gains and corporate profits would be eliminated and replaced with a 9 percent tax on income, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent national sales tax.
Most liberal and conservative economists conclude that sales taxes tend to hurt low income families the most because they spend more of their income than the rich.
Cain’s plan would exempt used items. However it would not exempt food or medicine from sales tax.
Cain said his plan would create zones where people and business could get additional tax deductions, which would reduce taxes for low-income people. However the plan does not provide specifics on how that would work.
An analysis of Cain’s plan shows why he is a favorite of the billionaire Koch brothers which have funded tea-party causes.
Cain’s plan is simple and catchy but it does not benefit working Americans.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune.)
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