Thread: Herman Cain: 21 Things You Don’t Know About Him

I picked the best ones for those with short attention spans.

To become energy independent, he believes this country should tap into the oil reserves of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

He adds, “When I become president, we will adopt a Drill Here, Drill Now strategy,” with a “bold goal” of “zero dependence on foreign oil.”

He believes that “if you mess with Israel, you’re messing with the United States of America. Don’t mess with us. Don’t mess with us. Is that real clear?”

He plans on replacing Obamacare with “Caincare,” something he describes in rather glorious and non-specific terms.

Cain's attitude-changing campaign would encourage preventative care (or "don't get sick," as former Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson famously quipped of standard GOP health care plans). It would also somehow demonstrate that "we all pay" and demonstrate what "we all can do to reduce the system costs." Cain doesn't actually explain what, if anything, individuals could do to reduce the system costs besides not getting sick.

He doesn’t much like Black History Month. “Why do we get only a month?” says Cain. “How come we can’t get a whole year?”

it's time for change

I agree we really need a month to celebrate Asian, Arab, Black, Indian, Hispanic and of course White history. The yearly thing could work too just think for an entire year we can celebrate every race of every nationality. By doing it this way everyone gets equal opportunity since racial equality is such an important part of American culture.

It always cracked me up that Black history month ended up being the coldest shortest month of the year

Originally Posted by arock

It always cracked me up that Black history month ended up being the coldest shortest month of the year

Never thought about that..

I guess they wanted to use a month that wont overlap with things like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving or god forbid Cinco de Mayo.

actually you could have just mentioned his tax plan. I looked into it briefly this morning. ugh.

Originally Posted by AmateurFlix

actually you could have just mentioned his tax plan. I looked into it briefly this morning. ugh.

You mean the 666 plan?

You may want to watch it because it's interesting coming from a Republican who cares more about country that he is willing to work with the enemy. We all know GE paid no tax but i doubt many Republican voters really understand how bad it is. The CEO of GE himself admits the system is broken and says the US should lower the rate and close all the loopholes.

GE's Jeff Immelt: The controversy over U.S. jobs - 60 Minutes Overtime - CBS News

I'll check out your video but briefly Cain's idea as I understand it - and perhaps what I read was wrong - is to get rid of all deductions and charge a flat 9% tax on all business income. somehow liberals are misconstruing this as a gift to the wealthy (which seems to be an involuntary reaction of liberals to any republican suggestion) however if there are no deductions for business expenses then charging 9% of gross rather than net profits could render many businesses unprofitable. i.e. some department store with a 10% profit margin might pay $10k to sell $11k worth of goods and then receive a $990 tax bill taking their 10% profit margin down to 0.1%.

It's idiotic and no one who has run businesses such as Cain has could possibly believe in something so stupid.

The other component is introducing a national sales tax which A) is more likely simply going to raise overall taxes rather than lowering them because that is the habit of a greedy government and B) effectively taxes you twice upon any income you've already saved and paid income taxes on previously.

If what I read is correct it sounds dumb all the way around.

Originally Posted by AmateurFlix

It's idiotic and no one who has run businesses such as Cain has could possibly believe in something so stupid.

Reality check..

Candidates push whatever ideas the campaign managers put on their agenda which is often dreamed up by speech writers working with supreme puppet masters. Mr Cain did not come up with the 999 plan himself nor did anyone on his personal staff. It was created by a political advisor connected to one of the various think tanks which obviously has to be reviewed and accepted by the Republican party.

All the straw polls really are is a way for the lobby groups to hedge bets on who can lie and deceive the US people the best. The Candidate who wins and gets elected then allows those who made winning bets to cash in their contribution chips in exchange for political favors and cash. So in essence US politics have become a giant Casino with some of the biggest and best payouts in the world.

Originally Posted by AmateurFlix

If what I read is correct it sounds dumb all the way around.

Part of the sales tax idea is to get money from companies like Amazon while giving federal rather then state government total control.

of course the campaign ideas are dreamed up by others... however there is usually a need to keep them at least somewhat grounded in fact. this wouldn't stand up to even the most basic scrutiny. as I was saying, Cain couldn't possibly believe in it; if he sticks around longer in the election process, he's going to have a difficult time explaining his support of it.

Originally Posted by toker

The CEO of GE himself admits the system is broken and says the US should lower the rate and close all the loopholes.

GE's Jeff Immelt: The controversy over U.S. jobs - 60 Minutes Overtime - CBS News

erm, that video & article has nothing to do with your statement...

Originally Posted by AmateurFlix

if he sticks around longer in the election process

It's all about book sales and everyone knows the house always wins in the end. Cain is just following in Palin's foot steps basically and has no real desire to actually win. From here he gets a more prominent spot (possibly a show on Discovery) on Fox, more lobby money, more book sales, pretends he might run in 2016.

This equals more PAC donations to buy/give away signed copies of his own book which raises the popularity as many others did which turns PAC into profit. One way or another they are all determined to get a cut from the Casino and becoming President just adds a bonus when you sell your memoir, dinners and photo ops at the end of your term.

Video is about Taxes and how the big rich Corps are raping us.

are you seeing a different video than I am? the video I saw on that page was about the "jobs czar" and GE's R&D. taxes were not mentioned at all. there was a very brief mention about people complaining that not every single job GE creates is on US soil.

It's in the full interview here.

The Jobs Czar: General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt - 60 Minutes - CBS News

I have no idea what you found to be so shocking about that. It's completely business as usual.

You obviously don't comprehend what im getting because obviously it makes Republicans look like a bunch of clowns.

Currently and under Bush GE has been getting a rebate and pays nothing in taxes. It has no tax liability to the US government which means the tax payers of America subsidize a portion of it's earnings. Nobody in the Republican camp really gives a damn that citizens foot the tax bill for billion dollar Corps.

Most big retail chains are the same way as Walmart actually gets to keep most if not all state sales tax it collects. This is compensation is provided for the burden placed on large businesses to handle and account for all that extra revenue. I think anyone with a brain can see something wrong with that picture. But i've yet to see any of your Fox friends speak out against big business not carrying it's own weight. And while talking the talk about small business creating jobs the government is always out to help big business who typically pays lower wages and demands greater productivity.

While state governments are seeking money from the federal government to make up for budget shortfalls caused by lower tax revenue and other problems related to the financial crisis, 26 states still have laws on their books dating back to the era before computerized cash registers allowing retailers to be compensated for collecting sales tax. Illinois ($126.1 million), Texas ($89.6 million), and Pennsylvania ($72.0 million) are the top three of 13 states that have no cap on the amount of sales tax retailers can keep, according to an article in today's Wall Street Journal. The amounts listed represent the annual revenue these states forfeited to retailers in 2007, out of an estimated total $1 billion per year revenue loss in all 26 states.

Wal-Mart Kept Estimated $60 Million in Sales Taxes - Seeking Alpha

toker,
1. The Republicans didn't appoint this fellow, Obama did. If he is going to make anyone look like a clown, it would be those responsible for putting him in that position, i.e. Obama & Democrats. They've had the Congress since 2006 and the White House since 2008. Despite all the wishing otherwise, the reality is that those with the power hold the responsibility, and bitching that one half of one branch of government is not under totalitarian dictate by Democrats does not exempt them from the blame which they have gone so very far out of their way to earn.
2. The mere fact that a corporation doesn't pay taxes does not mean that the taxpayers somehow subsidize their earnings, unless that corporation is making undue use of government services somehow.
3. There is no justifiable reason for any corporation to pay income tax, as the government will get its greedy little hands on any profits when they are paid out to actual human beings anyway. If a corporation has profits which don't get paid out to actual people who are taxed on that income, then those profits are inevitably reinvested into some other business venture at some point, even if they sit on the profits for a few years until the economic environment becomes more stable. When people bitch about corps not paying taxes, all they're really bitching about is that gov't isn't double dipping into the same profits twice. By doing so, they remove investment capital, which slows economic growth.
4. You've misunderstood that article regarding sales tax. State governments often allow retailers to retain a very small percentage of collected sales tax as an incentive to promptly pay the sales taxes which they have collected. In my state I believe it is or was something like 0.5% of the tax collected. Meaning if a $100 sale was made and $7 in sales tax was collected, then the retailer could keep 3 and one half cents of that $7 provided that they sent the tax payment on time. I suppose for big retailers those tiny amounts can add up significantly and that allowing massive rebates probably wasn't the point of the laws in the first place, however to say that they're allowed to keep the majority of the sales tax which they collect is simply wrong.
5. I haven't watched a thing on Fox news in several months. Merely because I disagree with many liberal positions does not mean that I watch Fox news, or something with even less journalistic integrity such as CNN. I read most of my news.
6. Yes, government talking about helping small business while actually doing the opposite is something which I agree with you about. Going back to the corporate income tax thing, while the very big corps can pay for all the exemptions and loopholes they need to avoid paying taxes, small corporations cannot do this and end up being effectively penalized by government in favor of their bigger competitors. We can debate the effectiveness or fairness of corporate income tax all day long however I think it should be obvious that unless those tax rates (or lack of them) are equal across the board for all corporations then it cannot be interpreted as anything but government interfering with the free market.

Actually your wrong on a few cases small business has to pay the tax that big business does not which puts the small guy at great disadvantage. As for GE it's bringing back jobs under Obama that were lost under Bush. Cain said business was afraid of Obama yet one of the biggest CEO's in the world does not seem even the least bit worried.

The sweetheart deals given to two Wal-Mart Supercenters in Hamilton, Mo., undermined Red Esry's four family-owned grocery stores. Esry watched his sales plunge as soon as the Supercenters opened—he couldn't compete with Wal-Mart's prices and lost almost half of his business virtually overnight.

Specifically, the company claimed that over the past 10 years, it collected $52 billion in sales taxes, remitted $192 million in income taxes, wage withholdings and unemployment insurance, and paid $4 billion in local property taxes. "Do the math and you will see that every dollar invested returned more than thirty," the company summarized.

TomPaine.com - Wal-Mart's Tax On Us

Originally Posted by AmateurFlix

I'll check out your video but briefly Cain's idea as I understand it - and perhaps what I read was wrong - is to get rid of all deductions and charge a flat 9% tax on all business income. somehow liberals are misconstruing this as a gift to the wealthy (which seems to be an involuntary reaction of liberals to any republican suggestion) however if there are no deductions for business expenses then charging 9% of gross rather than net profits could render many businesses unprofitable. i.e. some department store with a 10% profit margin might pay $10k to sell $11k worth of goods and then receive a $990 tax bill taking their 10% profit margin down to 0.1%.
.

From what I read its not like this. The tax setup stays the same, it closes loop holes but deducting biz expenses aren't a loop hole.
So the corporate rate just drops from 35% to 9%.
Then the highest income taxes drop to 25%, before dropping to 9%.
Also, a 9% country wide sales tax goes live, so you get charged on what you spend.

Eventually, all the income taxes get phased out completely and its all replaced with fair tax (which I believe is just more sales tax?).

So basically his plan is terribly regressive, as the lower income people who pay little tax (sure they pay no income tax, but they still pay sales taxes, payroll taxes right now and spend all of their income), their tax rates would get raised significantly.
The upper middle class and up would get more of a tax break, the more wealthy, the better the cut is.

But it'd never happen, even if he managed to get elected for 2 terms, there is no fucking way there would be that much of an overhaul on the tax system in just 8 years

Originally Posted by toker

Actually your wrong on a few cases small business has to pay the tax that big business does not which puts the small guy at great disadvantage.

That's what I said.

Originally Posted by toker

As for GE it's bringing back jobs under Obama that were lost under Bush. Cain said business was afraid of Obama yet one of the biggest CEO's in the world does not seem even the least bit worried.

Gee, if some political clown who's buddy-buddy with the President and has access to the White House says so then it must be true