Herman Cain's 999 Plan Raises Taxes on 84% of Americans

[thehobbydude]

Quoting the article "According to the Tax Policy Center, households with incomes below $30,000 would have, on average, between 16% and 20% less in after-tax income than they do today. By contrast, households making more than $200,000 would see their after-tax income grow by between 5% and 22% on average. But the majority of the highest income households would get a tax cut. For instance, 95% of those with more than $1 million in income would receive an average tax cut of $487,300."

Just curious what our tax experts on the board think about the Tax Policy Center's analysis. I personally have a problem with the 16% to 20% increase on households with incomes below $30,000 while those making over $1 million would see an average tax cut of $487,300.

[DTorrchia]

Agreed! It doesn't sound like 9-9-9 is a better option for the average American taxpayer. Rather than coming up with a completely new tax plan, I'd like to see the Government come up with a way to get a higher % of the working population to contribute. I've read that only 53% are paying taxes in our country. Surely there has to be way to increase that number.

[greymouse]

Numbers are so hard to visualize. How about a picture, in the form of a chart? The first four blue columns are the increases for the non-rich 80%. The fifth blue column going in the other direction is the average tax cut for the rich. The red columns are the tax cuts for the richest of the rich.

Which demonstrates, btw, that the richest 1% and one tenth of one percent are far, far, far richer than even the average rich guy.



source: http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/9-9-9-...d+Bernstein%29

[thehobbydude]

As I stated in another post, fairness depends on where you sit. If you're at the bottom 20% fairness means that you don't want to pay federal taxes because you're already poor. Fairness to the top 20% means that the bottom 20% better pay because you're tired of paying for them. Realistically, the 47% that the top 1% want you to believe that don't pay taxes actually do pay taxes in many ways - sales taxes, fuel taxes, property taxes (even if they rent, part of their rent goes towards property taxes), etc. What they don't pay is federal taxes and that's basically because they're either too poor or have enough money to pay people to find loopholes to avoid paying taxes. I've read that some of the 47% are in the $1 million annual income range. With the US having a median income of $43K, you bet that the vast majority of the 47% are just too poor to pay taxes. In my opinion if you increase taxes on those folks they'll have even less spending power and will cut back on consumption. Can you imagine how much damage to the economy that would make if 1/3 of the population cut back even further because their income is further reduced by 20%? Sometimes the medicine is worst than the disease but unfortunately we find out the hard way if people continue to support Herman Cain without really understanding his proposals.

[aroundaustin]

I think their analysis is bunk. It doesn't take into consideration the taxes which the 9-9-9 plan removes and the impact of those rate cuts. I think the 9-9-9 plan is brilliant. One thing which is also missed is the 9-9-9 plan is only a temporary plan. It is phase I of Cain's overall plan. Phase II is scrapping the income tax completely and switching over to the Fair Tax and the repeal of the 16th amendment removing the authority for Congress to tax income.

Be careful of the articles you read regarding the plan. I've been reading dozens of these articles and most of them contain false information. If you want to find out what really is in the plan then go to Cain's website and read it for yourself. It's less than 12 pages long. Once you've read the plan you'll be able to determine which of the articles regarding the plan are BS and which are legitimate.