The Herman Cain 999 plan Is a shit deal for the middle class.

Lets start with how it treats the rich:

Capital gains aren't taxed under 999, and the top one tenth of one percent make almost all of their cash with capital gains.

What is taxed under 999:

All purchases, including food.
All income.
There are zero deductions with 999

Important to note: he is trying to sell 999 as a lower rate than the 15% FICA tax. Problem is, unless you are self employed you only pay half of that, your job picks up the other half.
Unless you job gives you a raise with the money that they save, you aren’t going to save money on payroll taxes since you pay less than 9% on that.
Do you really think the company you work for is going to give you a raise since they just got a tax cut on their profits?
Do we really think that a profitable company currently paying a 20% tax rate, will charge less for their widgets when their rate drops to 9%?

To be fair, your paycheck will be larger under 999 because the withholding tax is gone. By eliminating the withholding and FICA tax, your take home pay will be larger than it is now.

The effective federal tax rate on most median households is 13%- this includes FICA.

This will drop to 9% and that part sounds good- but don’t forget about the national sales tax.
Suppose a family of four spends forty thousand on necessities - that’s a 3600 tax bill!

The median household income in 2010 is fifty thousand. That 3600 tax bill represents a 7% tax rate for a family of four that makes the median household income.

That’s an effective 16% tax rate for a household that makes the median wage. This same household is paying 3% more in taxes under the 9-9-9 plan- this represents a 20% increase in taxes.

Needless to say, this regressive plan gets worse and worse the less you make. On the flip-side, it gets better and better the more you make.

Will rent be taxed at 9%- how about your mortgage payment? We don’t know, because he doesn’t say.
How is he going to fund entitlements without FICA taxes? We don’t know, because he doesn’t say.

Are entitlements going on vacation to Chile under his 999 plan?