The 9-9-9 Plan: Herman Cain and the Beauty of Simplicity

Say what you want about the simplicity of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, but that dig on his plan is not going to stick.  Here are the five reasons why.

1.  The current tax code is so insanely complex that nobody fully understands it.  Sure, there are tax lawyers and lobbyists and GE who seem to have a mastery of it.  Oh wait, that just makes Cain’s 9-9-9 plan look even better.

2.  People complain that Cain’s tax plan won’t raise enough money.  Umm, neither does the current tax code.  At least when looking at Herman Cain’s plan people know that the lobbyists and the GE’s of the world will no longer get away with, well, getting something for nothing.  The truth is that nobody knows what exactly we end up with under a 9-9-9 plan because it is so radically different than what we have now.

3.  It will mean we pay tax on gas and beer!  Heaven forbid that we pay a consumption tax on things we buy.  Yeah, it hits poor people on groceries, but it hits rich people on everything they buy.  When you read about all the insane spending by, well anyone who still has money to spend, you can rest assured they will be paying their 9% share.  Boats, private airplanes, diamond earrings, $200 jeans, yeah they all get taxed by 9-9-9.  There is something just fair about that aspect of it.  If anything, it will drive down excess consumption buy the poor and rich alike.   (Yeah, even the poor waste their money on useless purchases)

4.  No more of this notion that you overpaid or someone else underpaid their taxes because they have a better accountant or because of some loophole.  The litany of deductions available to people now is like a smorgasbord of government meddling in the free market.  Mortgage deduction, trade in your junker car, etc.  Either you don’t qualify and you feel like you’re getting screwed, or you do qualify and you think you got some special deal.  End it and we all play by the same rules.  (I hate the tax code for the same reason I hate Time Warner Cable.  I once told my friend that I was happy with my cable service, he promptly signed up at 1/3 less than I was paying.  When I called to complain, they just said he was a “new” customer so too bad.)  Nobody likes that kind of nonsense, we all want know we are paying the same for the same service.  Taxes are the same.

5.  The plan starts with “scrapping the tax code”.  We all hate taxes and that part of the plan just wipes out every scam and loophole.  It is not the same “re-writing” of the tax code with the tired and hollow promises to “end loopholes” which just means more of the same, where some people will win and some people will lose depending on who has the better lobbyist.

I haven’t bothered to calculate whether I would personally be better off or not under Herman Cain’s plan, and that is not the point.  I know with out having to calculate anything that GE will not pay zero and that me and my neighbors will all pay the same rate.  Unlike Ron Paul who would just say to dissolve the IRS and income taxes, at least Herman Cain does not sound like a loon, he just sounds like someone who has not been bought off by some group who wants a better tax deal.  I am sick of that game and I think most of America is.  When his opponents are forced to make lame jokes to try and argue against the plan then end up looking foolish.

“When you take the 9-9-9 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil is in the details,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

“I think it’s a catchy phrase,” said Jon Huntsman. “In fact, I thought it was the price of a pizza when I first heard about it.”