According to an analysis by the Cain campaign that was released to Bloomberg News, the candidate’s ‘9-9-9’ plan would generate the same amount of revenue as the current tax system. The campaign’s own analysis conflicts with an earlier Bloomberg analysis which showed that the plan would have collected $200 billion less in taxes than the current system in 2010.
The revenue estimates, conducted by Fiscal Associates, Inc., are “in the ballpark in some vague sense,” according to Alan Viard, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. In reality, Viard said the rate might need to be raised from 9 to 10 percent in order to generate the same amount of revenue as the current tax code.
The Cain tax plan will continue to be scrutinized in the coming days, as the candidate seeks to solidify his standing in the top tier of GOP contenders. Already, questions are being raised about who helped him develop the plan. The only economic adviser Cain has publicly ackowledged is a Mr. Rich Lowrie, who appears to be a personal finance director based in Cleveland, Ohio.
