Statement by Herman Cain - Um, Mr. President, Those Ideas Failed Already (But Here Are Some Better Ones)

The U.S. economy is on life support. The stock market is on a roller coaster. The unemployment situation has gotten worse. The Middle East is more volatile than ever. Congress has one of the lowest approval ratings in history, while President Obama's approval rating has hit a new low.

And now, after his big "jobs speech" before a joint session of Congress last week, the president wants to spend another nearly $450 billion to turn things around, since the first stimulus of nearly $1 trillion did not work. The speech contained the same kind of ideas he proposed earlier, packaged in some different rhetoric except for two new additions.

First, he proposed to cut the payroll tax in half for both employees and employers, but he did not say for how long. Granted, it's half of what I have been proposing for months. But without major companion cuts in the top corporate and personal income tax rates, and the suspension of taxes on repatriated foreign profits, it's just another crumb from the want-to-be king's table.

Businesses are not going to rush out and start hiring people, just as they did not when the president passed the 2 percent payroll tax crumb in the first stimulus package. And businesses still do not know what the tax structure will be in 2013. That's not fuel for the economic engine, which is the business sector. It's just a few dollars in the pockets of workers, and more uncertainty.

Second, he wants to create an "infrastructure bank" for roads, bridges and highways with $10 billion of taxpayer money as seed money. Translation: Highway robbery! This is how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got started, and they eventually imploded at taxpayer expense, and caused the biggest financial meltdown in this country since the Great Depression.

We do not need to go down that same road again. What part of "it did not work" don't they understand? People, wake them up!

Worst of all, the president's proposal added complexity to the already insane complexity of the current tax code, and it did not remove one ounce of uncertainty about future taxes and regulations, which are killing economic growth and jobs.

Unfortunately, about 40 percent of the public believes the president is doing a good job. That percentage will probably go up for a few days because that same group does not know the difference between a speech and a real plan. That's sad, because it means they do not have a clue about the dangerous economic and world situations we face as a nation.

As long as the president continues to propose the same disjointed and deceptive ideas for more government spending with a few tax trinkets, I will continue to propose my bold plan for real economic growth and jobs creation. It's based on sound economic principles and historical results. (www.hermancain.com )

The 9-9-9 plan!

A 9 percent business flat ta

• Gross income less all investments, all purchases from other businesses
• 
  
• And no double taxation of dividends.

A 9 percent individual income flat tax

• Gross income less charitable deductions

A 9 percent national sales tax

• This significantly expands the tax base which helps everybody.

The 9-9-9 plan has the following advantages:

• It is fair, revenue-neutral, transparent and efficient
• 
  
• Zero tax on capital gains and repatriated profits
• 
  
• Replaces the payroll tax, and eliminates the death tax
• 
  
• Saves taxpayers $430 billion in annual compliance costs
• 
  
• It eliminates the uncertainty holding this economy down

Mr. President! More speeches, more spending, and more tax trinkets are not a bridge to solving America's economic problems. It didn't work before.

Let's try something new. The 9-9-9 plan is new.