This week the pizza guy is leading the pack for the Republican nomination for President, next week who knows. Herman Cain has turned his 9-9-9 plan into a rap lyric that seems to mesmerize the right-wingers in his party (more on that in a moment), I think of Cain as Judas-Goat.
They were trained to befriend cattle and sheep then lead them to the slaughter while their own lives were spared. Most of the world has outlawed the practice. As the only black candidate in the field, he has said racism is not a big problem, he had no time for civil rights activities as a youngster and the poor and unemployed probably have it coming.
But it's his 9-9-9 plan that would lead us to the slaughterhouse. In Sherman Oaks and most of Southern California, the state and local sales taxes are about 10 percent. Cain's plan would add another 9 percent on goods, food, services and medicine (there is no state sales tax on food at present)
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Think about it this way: add another buck to everything you buy for 10 bucks. He would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 9 and income taxes from a high of about 35 percent to 9 percent. Translation: the rich would pay 3 times less and the very poor would also pay 9 percent. Payroll taxes would be dropped (they fund social security), and home mortgage deduction would also be dropped. Non-partisan economists call the plan foolish.
Cain and his homies are fond of complaining that about 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax. Light bulb moment: more than 47 million Americans live below the poverty line, at least 20 million are unemployed or under employed. Our system works like this: the more you earn the more you pay, the less you earn the less you pay, and below a certain level you pay nothing. Not perfect but not ready to be slaughtered either.
