Do you think that 9-9-9 tax sounds good, you might be surprised.

I agree that we should have let the Bush tax cuts expire years ago, they weren't working, and when we extended them, it did NOTHING. Can you find me one positive effect on the country when we extended them? YOU CAN'T!!!! Our problem as a country is that we want everything handed to us, and when we don't get our way we act like a two year old when you take away his favorite toy. The rich call this class warfare, but they didn't call it that when they call for limits on unemployment, and welfare. The problem with your tax code idea is that it makes sense, and would hurt the elected officials. Which means it will NEVER even be suggested, nor thought of, and I am sure that most of our elected officials would want you put in jail, or killed for offering such an idea.

Taskr, depending on who you listen to, it will mean less revenue, or about the same because of all of the taxes that I noted will continue. One of the other parts of this link is the fact of how much the FED sends back to the government every year ($78 BILLION). For those that want to end the FED, you might want to consider where we are going to make that money up from. I agree that airlines are horrible, what will make you more upset is that when they raise rates on fuel most of their prices didn't go up because they contract fuel for months, or years. So they are just making more money off of you. Now do you know why I harp on the excessive profits that corporations are making today? Just remember, they are all tools of wall street, and they have to continue to keep these insane profits rolling in, or their stock price goes down, and that is the life blood of these CEO's compensation, so we all know they won't let that happen.

Jacking up prices when demand is high in one of the worst parts of supply and demand. It doesn't make sense. It turns buyers off. It's obviously only to squeeze profit. And most companies do it when you can't easily find competition, so they're willingly taking advantage of you. Comcast is a great example of this, and while it might not be "gouging" by definition, it's fairly close. There are sound economic principles that allow businesses to steadily grow, then there are greedy measures put in place to increase profits. It seems to me that government regulations have inadvertently made things worse, as now it's harder for a business to rise and offer competition. There are a lot of "damn near" monopolies we all see every day.

Taskr, I agree that price fixing isn't a great idea, nor is run away capitalism, but there has to be a middle ground on this. The problem with many regulations, is that they are no matter what the law says if the people regulating the laws don't do their jobs than the regulations don't matter. There are two prime examples of this, that have destroyed our economy: The housing crisis, and the BP oil spill. If you have regulators that are either in the pocket of an industry, or came from that industry, and leave to work in that industry than you are just creating a climate of corruption. There is no difference between a politician accepting a bribe, and a regulator who's job is to look over an industry either worked for that industry, or leaves his or her job and goes to work in that industry.

I do agree that our tax system needs to be change, but do we really want to make it harder on the people that are struggling the most? Do rich Americans really need another tax break? We extended the Bush Tax cuts, and that did NOTHING to help the economy. There are study after study that have shown that the wealthy are doing VERY well since 2008, while the rest of the country has struggled. Actually the Tax Policy Center did an analysis of this plan, and they proved what we all knew which is that the rich will get a tax cuts, and the rest of us will have our taxes go up. What companies have "real competition"? When Wal Mart raised prices during the recession all of their competition did the same thing. When the oil companies raise gas prices they all to it together, and at the same time. The two most purchase items in this country are food and energy, so please let me know what "real competition" is out there? Do you understand that if consumers are use to paying those taxes, the corporations will just raise their prices, and increase profits. Unless Herman Cain is going to force corporations to lower their prices they won't. Do you think he will force them to lower their prices? Unfortunately you have fallen for text book logic when it comes to business, and actually believe the US corporations will do the right thing by their consumers. The only thing that matters to corporations is their share price, share price, and share price!!!!! I just gave you a REAL LIVE example of what I am saying, and if you think the airline industry is unique, then you need to take a class in business. This is what they call a case study, and I am sure every corporation that would have taxes cut on their product would pull this out as an example of why we should just raise our prices, and screw consumer.

Sorry, forgot the link http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxtopics/Cain-9-9-9-plan.cfm

Sierras, "fairness" is what we all like to say we want, but when have you EVER heard a CEO of a corporation say ANYTHING about "fairness"? I hate to tell you and Neil this, but when they buy their pimped out car, they pay sales tax NOW!! So you and Neil need to find another bright side to a DULL plan. The stimulus was a theory that didn't work, and we are all pay for that. But, I do find it interesting how you want to give Cain credit for trying something, but bash Obama for doing the same (which is what the head of the FED wanted Obama to do). I hate to tell you this, but Wal Mart did NOT get hurt by raising their prices, they have actually made a lot more money than the last three years. You are correct that companies are bringing back layaway but that is because the average Americans out there can't afford to buy products without making payments. This is NOT a good sign, it is a VERY bad sign. The Oil industry IS a monopoly, and they don't really care who knows. They DO contact each other about price increases, and they DO all look at what each other are doing and raise their prices together. This part of the business doesn't have anything to do with derivatives, it has to do with protecting profits. What many people don't understand it that supply and demand doesn't matter when a group can control supply. The oil industry has spent decades closing refineries, and blaming the EPA when really they were getting back at the governments that started up Strategic Petroleum Reserves. See, it doesn't matter how much oil you have, if you can't refine it than it is useless. How many times have you looked at the price of oil and said that the price of gas should go down? Did they lower the price because YOU thought they should? I hate to tell you this, but just like what happened with the Airlines these corporations WON'T lower their prices, they will just make more money. Right now you don't know that corporations are paying what in taxes, and that doesn't stop the ones that are paying less from charging the same amount as the ones that are paying more. Just because you know that GE isn't paying a dime in taxes, doesn't mean that you walk into a Sears and ask for a discount on a dryer. I hate to tell you this, but corporations don't care about fair, and they don't care about you or me. They only care about their share price, and if you can effect that than you will have their ear, but at that point in time you will want them to make as much money as possible because you will want to make money off of your investment. Welcome to economics!!!!

I agree that the state sales tax would push the total tax rate easily into the same as it is now, if not higher especially on the poor. Can you say CLASS WAREFARE?

Herman Cain can't do anything about the State sales tax any more than President Obama can. That's entirely up to each individual state. But if you take a state like New York, current tax rate along with state tax rate push some income earners above 50%. Is it really class warfare or the classic definition of State Greed instead of Government Greed?

Sierras, you are correct that he can't do anything about it, but he also can't ignore it, and his opponents brought that up last night. He didn't have an answer for that either, and nor do the people that support this idea