9-9-9 PROBLEMS, AND A JOB AIN’T ONE
Oct. 14th, 2011 06:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogAnd while I’m blogging about Sarah Palin, I might as well get in a few words about Herman Cain, who has suddenly become the new Rick Perry, except that Cain has actually been campaigning for president for over a year now, and has been consistently polling in the single-digit range, though at least he’s managed to prove he’s more electable than Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and (depending on the crowd) Rick Santorum.
Now he’s up 22 points in one month.
Apparently, all he needed was the right catchphrase.
And I don’t mean “I don’t have the facts to back this up” (though that has the potential to be the new “Not intended to be a factual statement”).
Granted, Cain has been floating the 9-9-9 idea for at least a month. But ever since New Hampshire, suddenly everyone’s talking about it.
It’s a ludicrous idea, of course – so much so that I have to admit I’m impressed that Cain can get a boost out of something that any sensible person could see would be a lot harder to implement than he’s making it sound. One doesn’t just throw out the tax code, and while it’s hard to find anyone who approves of the current M.O. of the IRS, I don’t understand the popular appeal of replacing it with a code that makes it harder to weasel out of paying taxes – though I guess the selling point is that if people only have to pay 9%, they won’t miss those loopholes and tax credits.
Besides, 9-9-9 works for SimCity, so who am I to be critical?
I’m being snotty, of course. And that’s at least in part because I’m not a big fan of Cain (probably something to do with the fact that I’m not nearly as terrified of Muslims as he is). Also, I never liked Godfather’s Pizza all that much.
But I also have a lot of healthy skepticism about anyone who wheels out the old “flat tax” routine as a vote-generator. I do think the tax code is in need of reform, and the IRS has far more power than it ought to have. But a flat tax always strikes me as an overly simplistic response to an overly complex problem disguised as an argument for fairness – as in, “it’s so unfair that people who make millions of dollars and who can afford to pay the current top tax rate have to pay a higher percentage than the low-income people who can’t even afford a 9% tax rate”.
That may be technically true, but a flat tax does put the burden on lower-income people who feel the pain of a 9% tax on income (and another 9% on anything they buy, excluding state and local sales taxes where applicable) than higher-income people. There’s really no getting around that. The math may say it’s fair, but that doesn’t make it easier to get by in real life – or make it any easier a pitch, especially when the economic situation is where it is right now (i.e. anywhere from pretty good to “f*** yeah awesome” if yr the 10% of the pop that control 70% of the wealth, but anywhere from unpromising to grim for the other 90%).
So no, I’m not impressed by the Herman Cain 9-9-9 meme, and I suspect the more he’s pressed for details, the more his numbers will sink.
Or maybe not. He only has to impress the GOP and Wall Street right now, and with many in the GOP apparently keen to nominate Someone Who Isn’t Mitt Romney Or Ron Paul, Cain’s 9-9-9 gimmick is the obvious new Flavor Of The Week. And the Tea Party is just about out of Chris Christies to look forward to.
But eventually Cain is going to have to take his act to the moderate wing, which won’t be easy when he’s running on a flat tax proposal that benefits the top 10% a lot more than it does the bottom 90%. If Cain expects to get any support from enough of that 90% percentile, he’s probably going to have to come up with something a little more encouraging than “If yr not as rich as me already, or if yr unemployed, it’s yr own damn fault.”
SEE ALSO:bedsitter23 ’s coverage.
Do the math,
This is dF
Now he’s up 22 points in one month.
Apparently, all he needed was the right catchphrase.
And I don’t mean “I don’t have the facts to back this up” (though that has the potential to be the new “Not intended to be a factual statement”).
Granted, Cain has been floating the 9-9-9 idea for at least a month. But ever since New Hampshire, suddenly everyone’s talking about it.
It’s a ludicrous idea, of course – so much so that I have to admit I’m impressed that Cain can get a boost out of something that any sensible person could see would be a lot harder to implement than he’s making it sound. One doesn’t just throw out the tax code, and while it’s hard to find anyone who approves of the current M.O. of the IRS, I don’t understand the popular appeal of replacing it with a code that makes it harder to weasel out of paying taxes – though I guess the selling point is that if people only have to pay 9%, they won’t miss those loopholes and tax credits.
Besides, 9-9-9 works for SimCity, so who am I to be critical?
I’m being snotty, of course. And that’s at least in part because I’m not a big fan of Cain (probably something to do with the fact that I’m not nearly as terrified of Muslims as he is). Also, I never liked Godfather’s Pizza all that much.
But I also have a lot of healthy skepticism about anyone who wheels out the old “flat tax” routine as a vote-generator. I do think the tax code is in need of reform, and the IRS has far more power than it ought to have. But a flat tax always strikes me as an overly simplistic response to an overly complex problem disguised as an argument for fairness – as in, “it’s so unfair that people who make millions of dollars and who can afford to pay the current top tax rate have to pay a higher percentage than the low-income people who can’t even afford a 9% tax rate”.
That may be technically true, but a flat tax does put the burden on lower-income people who feel the pain of a 9% tax on income (and another 9% on anything they buy, excluding state and local sales taxes where applicable) than higher-income people. There’s really no getting around that. The math may say it’s fair, but that doesn’t make it easier to get by in real life – or make it any easier a pitch, especially when the economic situation is where it is right now (i.e. anywhere from pretty good to “f*** yeah awesome” if yr the 10% of the pop that control 70% of the wealth, but anywhere from unpromising to grim for the other 90%).
So no, I’m not impressed by the Herman Cain 9-9-9 meme, and I suspect the more he’s pressed for details, the more his numbers will sink.
Or maybe not. He only has to impress the GOP and Wall Street right now, and with many in the GOP apparently keen to nominate Someone Who Isn’t Mitt Romney Or Ron Paul, Cain’s 9-9-9 gimmick is the obvious new Flavor Of The Week. And the Tea Party is just about out of Chris Christies to look forward to.
But eventually Cain is going to have to take his act to the moderate wing, which won’t be easy when he’s running on a flat tax proposal that benefits the top 10% a lot more than it does the bottom 90%. If Cain expects to get any support from enough of that 90% percentile, he’s probably going to have to come up with something a little more encouraging than “If yr not as rich as me already, or if yr unemployed, it’s yr own damn fault.”
SEE ALSO:
bedsitter23 ’s coverage. Do the math,
This is dF
