Canadian Commentator: The Press Gave America ‘An Untried, Unknown,’ ‘Incompetent Figure As President’
September 18, 2011 No Comment
Maybe what America's press really need is a Canadian television commentator to explain how atrocious their coverage of Barack Obama has been since the moment he tossed his named into the presidential ring in February 2007. Although they may not be familiar with CBC's Rex Murphy, they should certainly heed the marvelous piece he wrote for the National Post Saturday entitled ” The Media’s Love Affair With a Disastrous President “: As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barrack [sic] Obama’s rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since. Murphy then walked through some of the press's most egregious examples of malpractice: Gliding past Obama's pretentions Ignoring his arrogance Not reporting his gaffes Side-stepping his connection to Rev. Jeremiah Wright Trashing Hillary Clinton Burning Republicans Ransacking Sarah Palin and her family “Palin, in particular, stands out as Obama’s opposite in the media’s eyes,” wrote Murphy. “As much as they genuflected to the one, they felt the need to turn rotweiler toward the other.” After offering further examples of so-called journalists' unforgivable obsession with attacking the former governor of Alaska, Murphy gave his strongest criticism. “As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President.” Murphy crescendoed to his spot on conclusion: “To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.” Almost on cue, “American Conservative's” Jim Pinkerton observed a few hours later on Saturday's “Fox News Watch” that some of Obama's enablers are starting to get it. “There’s a strange thing happening in the media which is, I think, liberalism has sort of concluded that Obama is kind of a turkey, and they're sort of trying to distance themselves from him.” They might try, but too many observers know the truth: the press aided and abetted this national disgrace, and they're going to have a lot to answer for in the coming years regardless of how much they try to distance themselves from the current White House resident. Hopefully more members of the foreign press will assist those of us in the States that have been sending out warning signals since February 2007. Maybe with their help, the media malpractice will be totally acknowledged by the guilty parties, and America will never have to witness such a disgraceful episode again. A conservative can dream, can't he?
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Sudanese girls brought to Britain for series of operations are finally parted at Great Ormond Street hospital Conjoined twin girls born with the tops of their heads fused together have been separated in a rare and risky series of operations at London’s Great Ormond Street hospital. Eleven-month-old Rital and Ritag Gaboura who are from Sudan were flown to Britain for the surgery which took place in four stages, with two operations in May, one in July and the final one on 15 August. Tissue expanders which are essentially balloons intended to help stretch the babies’ skin over their newly exposed heads were inserted in July. Twins born joined at the head are known as craniopagus twins and they occur in about one in 2.5 million births. Separating them can be dangerous, especially if as in this case, there is significant blood flow between their brains. However, a failure to operate can be equally dangerous as conjoined twins almost never pump the blood across their bodies evenly and the strongest sibling strains his or her heart trying to pick up the slack. Facing the World, a charity which helps disfigured children, said that Ritag’s overworked heart was already failing by the time her family arrived in Britain. Lead surgeon David Dunaway said: “Incidences of surviving twins with this condition are extremely rare. The task presented innumerable challenges and we were all very aware of our responsibilities to the family and these two little girls.” Even successful operations can leave neurological damage, but experts are confident Rital and Ritag are healthy. “Within days the twins were back on the general ward interacting and playing as before,” said Sarah Driver-Jowitt, from Facing the World. Driver-Jowitt predicted that the girls’ parents, who have not been named, may soon return home “with two healthy, separate girls”. Although rare, operations to separate twins linked by their heads have been carried out for many years. The American National Library of Medicine records that one of the first successful operations took place in 1956. In 2003, surgeons in Dallas separated Egyptian craniopagus twins and a year later doctors separated Filipino twins in four major surgeries that took place over a period of 10 months. London Health Children Sudan Damien Pearse guardian.co.uk
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Newly-elected Republican Bob Turner officially took over Anthony Weiner’s House seat on Thursday. But he won’t literally be taking over his chair. That’s because Turner’s wife Peggy apparently wants Weiner’s office chair, the one the embattled former Congressman tweeted lewd pictures from, removed from the office. Turner took over Weiner’s old office, suite 2104, in
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Postal service overhaul could result in Post Office run along same lines as John Lewis or Co-operative Ministers will on Monday unveil plans to move the Post Office into mutual ownership as part of the government’s major overhaul of the Royal Mail. The Post Office could be on a “clear path” to mutualisation by the end of this parliament, ministers said, in advance of the launch of a consultation on the proposals. Subpostmasters, customers and communities could be given a say in how the Post Office arm of the network is run, including the appointment of directors. The move follows the announcement of a plan to privatise the Royal Mail side of the postal business, which the government argues is necessary to protect its future and ensure growth. The consultation – Building a Mutual Post Office – follows a report earlier this year led by Co-operatives UK , the trade body that works to promote them, which suggested that a mutual body, such as a company or a co-operative, could be set up, with members including staff and customers. The government would then transfer ownership of the Post Office to that body, which would have a say in board appointments as well as sharing in profits. Postal affairs minister Edward Davey said: “The consultation … sets out the different options for how we might enable subpostmasters, employees, post office customers and local communities to have a real stake in the future of the Post Office. “Combined with our major investment programme and the Post Office’s ambition to become the ‘front office for government’, a mutualised Post Office could help link a new commercial focus with an even stronger community purpose.” The government said it believed that Post Office Ltd could be ideally suited to a mutual model, with those that know it best working together, giving them a greater say in how the business is run, as well as a stake in its success. Changing Post Office Ltd – the national company which sets the strategy for the post office network and operates some larger branches – to a mutual would not affect the thousands of privately owned branches across the UK, said Davey. The Co-operatives UK report suggested a number of models, such as John Lewis or the Co-operative, but Davey said the Post Office mutual could be a hybrid of different ideas. The coalition was investing £1.34bn into the Post Office to improve efficiency and levels of service, but mutualisation would help secure its future, he said. The consultation will continue until mid-December, but it could take years before the process is completed. The government’s plans to privatise the Royal Mail were waiting for regulatory changes and European clearance on state aid, but Davey said there had been a “dramatic change of atmosphere” now the postal services legislation had been approved by parliament. Post Office Royal Mail Postal service Privatisation Economic policy Damien Pearse guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rep. Jerrold Nadler joined the set of Chris Hayes’ new show, Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC this Sunday morning to talk about President Obama’s proposal to increase the tax rate on millionaires and a bill he’s going to be introducing this week that should end this hostage taking we’ve seen from Republicans on the debt ceiling. Here’s more from The Hill on that — House Dems introduce bill to eliminate debt ceiling : Three congressional Democrats are introducing a bill Wednesday that would abolish the federal debt ceiling. The lawmakers say that the recent debate to raise the ceiling and avoid default had a “disastrous” effect on the U.S economy, and that the legislation would keep parties from using a potential default as a hostage in future budget debates. “The debt ceiling is truly arbitrary and has nothing to do with the deficit,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement last Wednesday. “The debt ceiling does not prevent the United States from incurring new debts. That occurs when Congress decides to authorize more spending than revenues. The debt ceiling prevents the president from borrowing money to pay those debts when they come due.” Virginia Democrat Jim Moran and Georgia Democrat Hank Johnson will join Nadler in introducing the legislation. But the bill is unlikely to gain traction, especially in the Republican-controlled House. Members of the GOP were encouraged that they were able to use the debt ceiling as leverage to attain deep budget cuts during negotiations with President Obama and the Senate. “Republicans in Congress have shown they are willing to hold the fate of our economy hostage by using the debt ceiling as a political weapon. It’s a tactic that has far ranging effects, disrupting financial markets, damaging the peoples’ trust in government and delaying consideration of must-pass legislation to create jobs and get our economy back on track,” Moran said.
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There are only two sure things in life. One, of course, is death, but the other isn't taxes — it's the left's ahistorical insistence that fascism is “right-wing.” Moreover, that belief is a mere starting point for hardcore lefties, such as the Kossacks below, who assert that conservatives are fascists.
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Follow the Guardian’s live coverage of the Emmy awards 2011 with Matt Wells, Sarah Hughes and Hadley Freeman 7.19pm: We’re playing the compulsory awards ceremony red-carpet drinking game. One for “I love your dress”, two for “my jewels are from Bulgari”. Sobriety will be a struggle tonight, I can tell this already. 7.13pm: Glee star Lea Michelle has arrived on the red carpet, dressed, appropriately, in a red capret. 7.10pm: Sharp questions from the Red Carpet on E! Entertainment. Presenter to Melissa McCarthy : “Do you own anything you wear?” 7.08pm: Sarah Hughes is next to me on the live blog sofa, and here’s her opening take. SH : Growing up in a gambling family awards shows were generally seen as just another forum to bet on so I thought we’d kick off with a quick guide to this year’s runners and riders. In the comedy category Modern Family looks almost certain to win for the second time, Downton Abbey is expected to see off Mildred Pierce in the best miniseries category (aka the compulsory HBO award), while the main drama category looks like a straight fight between Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men. That said I’m always a fan of a risky bet and would be very happy if football drama, Friday Night Lights was finally recognised for four outstanding seasons (we’ll just pretend that season two never happened). As for the rest while I’d love to see awards go to Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Amy Poehler (Parks & Recreation), Louis CK (Louie) and either Jon Hamm (Mad Men) or Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire) but the problem with the Emmys is that you never know exactly which way the voters will swing. Thus logic (and the bookies) might say that Jon Hamm is the favourite to win the outstanding actor, drama category but given that this is the event which awarded James Spader over James Gandolfini in 2007 it’s equally possible that Hugh Laurie will get the nod after six years of nominations and no win. As for the rest if I was placing my money where my words are then I’d say that in addition to Laurie, Laura Linney will take best actress, comedy, Julianna Margulies will win best actress, drama and Steve Carell will get the outstanding actor, comedy award as acknowledgement for his time on The Office, even though the season itself was pretty poor. Of course all those predictions will probably be completely incorrect so feel free to mock me all over the internet when I turn out to be wrong. 6.50pm: Lizz Winstead is raring to go already. You can follow her on Twitter if you can’t get enough of her here. She notes there are more black people running for the Republican presidential nomination than up for awards tonight. It’s always exciting to see pretty white folks in Hollywood congratulate themselves for finding so many pretty white people to reward. It makes People Magazine’s job that much easier. But alas again this year, I will be disappointed. I was really hoping now that they have added the category, “Outstanding Reality Show” or “Fame Thirsty Talent Vortex” if you prefer, they would have considered specifics Emmy’s for “Excellence In Defining Women As Shrewish Greed Bots ” and “Best Knocked Up Teen” but sadly I may have to wait another year. At least they will have pretty gowns and won’t have to suffer a tax hike. 6.30pm ET: Can last year’s Emmy’s be topped? Now there’s a phrase you don’t hear about the US TV industry’s annual gong-a-thon very often. In fact, mostly never. But in 2010, after years of shambolic broadcasts, badly briefed presenters, over-runs and idiosyncratic awards choices, the organisers finally got it together . In an article headlined ” Were these the best Emmy’s ever ?” New York magazine described last year’s event as the “least excruciating televised awards show since the 2009 Oscars”. Which is quite something for New York magazine. But it wasn’t just that new shows like Modern Family and Glee finally knocked the tired favourites off the podium. In fact it wasn’t that at all. It was mostly the best Emmy’s ever because of this: – an intro of unparalleled genius topped only by the reaction of Susan Sarandon, who summed up the feelings of the room when she wolf-whistled enthusiastically at Jimmy Fallon, the cast of Glee, Jon Hamm, Tina Fey and Randy Newman, who performed Born to Run in a contagiously full-on show choir style. This year, Glee star Jane Lynch is hosting the show, which is being broadcast in the US on Fox. Can we expect another classic year? It’s a pretty strong nominations field . (Here’s the full list .) Or can we just expect still to be here at midnight? On the live blog sofa for you tonight are Guardian fashion guru Hadley Freeman , TV blogger Sarah Hughes, and me, an Emmys newbie, for live coverage of the show. I know what you’re thinking: what do that lot know about anything. Fortunately we have a real expert on board: co-creator of the Daily Show, Lizz Winstead , is standing by to provide the sharp and snark that is the hallmark of Guardian live blogs. Well, except the ones about the Middle East . Emmys 2011 Television United States Television industry US television US television industry Matt Wells Hadley Freeman Sarah Hughes guardian.co.uk
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‘Make-or-break’ conversation between finance minister, EU and IMF will determine next measures to prevent default Europe’s debt crisis intensified last night as Greece ‘s embattled government said the country’s financial future would rest on a make-or-break conference call with EU and IMF officials on Monday. Signalling that the 20-month saga had reached crunch point, Athens’ finance minister prepared the austerity-weary nation for further belt-tightening, saying the time had come for “decisive” action to avoid a Greek default. “There is great volatility in the markets,” Evangelos Venizelos said after emerging from crisis cabinet talks. “If we want to avoid default, to stabilise the situation, to remain in the eurozone … we must take big strategic decisions. “Measures must be specified,” he added, referring to reforms outlined in a contentious budget plan passed in July. “After tomorrow’s talks with the troika [of representatives from the EU, ECB and IMF] we will spell out the measures.” With the threat of bankruptcy looming, Greece was told in no uncertain terms over the weekend that a critical ¤8bn rescue loan would not be released next month unless it proved that it had bitten the bullet with reforms. The funds would be the sixth instalment of cash Athens has received since being bailed out to the tune of €110bn in May 2010. But reading the riot act to Greece as never before, EU finance ministers meeting in Poland insisted that without “concrete facts and figures” to show that Athens was intent on bringing its budget deficit in line, the aid would not be forthcoming. Without the cash injection, the ruling socialists will be unable to cover state wages and pensions in October. “The atmosphere was far from diplomatic,” said one Greek insider. “They don’t seem to have faith in us. The choice is clear. Either we go down or show real determination, not words but deeds.” For George Papandreou’s administration, that determination is likely to mean a massive reduction of the bloated civil service – previously unthinkable in a nation reared on the notion of jobs for life – on top of austerity measures that have seen pensions and wages decline dramatically. The authoritative Sunday Vima , citing an internal government email, said the country’s international creditors had not only demanded that 100,000 public sector workers be laid off by 2015 but also that the pensions of farmers, sailors and employees with the telecommunication organisation OTE be cut immediately. Around 50,000 state employees would have to be placed on reduced pay in a special labour reserve immediately. With the atmosphere becoming ever more explosive, such measures would almost certainly exacerbate social unrest. “Everyone wants a smaller state,” said Venizelos. “The 2012 budget is now being put together. And the central direction for 2012 is to reduce expenditures.” Although senior ministers have conceded that widespread resistance has slowed reforms – not least the privatisation of state assets and deregulation of professions – the government has argued that a worse than expected recession has also slowed the pace of change. Venizelos recently said the Greek economy would contract for a fourth consecutive year in 2012, partly because of the tough cuts. The budget deficit, originally expected to be around 7.4% of GDP by year’s end, is now projected to be nearer 10%. In an effort to meet a shortfall that is ¤2bn and rising, the government unveiled a surprise property tax last week, but with the backlash immediate and likely to grow, EU ministers indicated that they did not have “great faith” in the measure. The lack of political consensus over the austerity measures has further eroded Greece’s credibility. The main conservative opposition leader, Antonis Samaras, is calling for snap elections and for the loan conditions to be renegotiated. “Our problem is to ensure that we get the sixth payment and each future payment with the best possible terms as we can’t keep having a repeat of the same scenario [before the disbursement of each loan],” Venizelos said in Poland. “The situation is serious in the sense that we need to take serious, definitive and complete decisions.” Papandreou highlighted the sense of urgency by cancelling a trip to the US, where he was to address the UN and meet the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde. Greece Global recession IMF Euro Global economy Economics European Union Europe Helena Smith guardian.co.uk
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‘Make-or-break’ conversation between finance minister, EU and IMF will determine next measures to prevent default Europe’s debt crisis intensified last night as Greece ‘s embattled government said the country’s financial future would rest on a make-or-break conference call with EU and IMF officials on Monday. Signalling that the 20-month saga had reached crunch point, Athens’ finance minister prepared the austerity-weary nation for further belt-tightening, saying the time had come for “decisive” action to avoid a Greek default. “There is great volatility in the markets,” Evangelos Venizelos said after emerging from crisis cabinet talks. “If we want to avoid default, to stabilise the situation, to remain in the eurozone … we must take big strategic decisions. “Measures must be specified,” he added, referring to reforms outlined in a contentious budget plan passed in July. “After tomorrow’s talks with the troika [of representatives from the EU, ECB and IMF] we will spell out the measures.” With the threat of bankruptcy looming, Greece was told in no uncertain terms over the weekend that a critical ¤8bn rescue loan would not be released next month unless it proved that it had bitten the bullet with reforms. The funds would be the sixth instalment of cash Athens has received since being bailed out to the tune of €110bn in May 2010. But reading the riot act to Greece as never before, EU finance ministers meeting in Poland insisted that without “concrete facts and figures” to show that Athens was intent on bringing its budget deficit in line, the aid would not be forthcoming. Without the cash injection, the ruling socialists will be unable to cover state wages and pensions in October. “The atmosphere was far from diplomatic,” said one Greek insider. “They don’t seem to have faith in us. The choice is clear. Either we go down or show real determination, not words but deeds.” For George Papandreou’s administration, that determination is likely to mean a massive reduction of the bloated civil service – previously unthinkable in a nation reared on the notion of jobs for life – on top of austerity measures that have seen pensions and wages decline dramatically. The authoritative Sunday Vima , citing an internal government email, said the country’s international creditors had not only demanded that 100,000 public sector workers be laid off by 2015 but also that the pensions of farmers, sailors and employees with the telecommunication organisation OTE be cut immediately. Around 50,000 state employees would have to be placed on reduced pay in a special labour reserve immediately. With the atmosphere becoming ever more explosive, such measures would almost certainly exacerbate social unrest. “Everyone wants a smaller state,” said Venizelos. “The 2012 budget is now being put together. And the central direction for 2012 is to reduce expenditures.” Although senior ministers have conceded that widespread resistance has slowed reforms – not least the privatisation of state assets and deregulation of professions – the government has argued that a worse than expected recession has also slowed the pace of change. Venizelos recently said the Greek economy would contract for a fourth consecutive year in 2012, partly because of the tough cuts. The budget deficit, originally expected to be around 7.4% of GDP by year’s end, is now projected to be nearer 10%. In an effort to meet a shortfall that is ¤2bn and rising, the government unveiled a surprise property tax last week, but with the backlash immediate and likely to grow, EU ministers indicated that they did not have “great faith” in the measure. The lack of political consensus over the austerity measures has further eroded Greece’s credibility. The main conservative opposition leader, Antonis Samaras, is calling for snap elections and for the loan conditions to be renegotiated. “Our problem is to ensure that we get the sixth payment and each future payment with the best possible terms as we can’t keep having a repeat of the same scenario [before the disbursement of each loan],” Venizelos said in Poland. “The situation is serious in the sense that we need to take serious, definitive and complete decisions.” Papandreou highlighted the sense of urgency by cancelling a trip to the US, where he was to address the UN and meet the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde. Greece Global recession IMF Euro Global economy Economics European Union Europe Helena Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Herman Cain Claims He Doesn’t Want to Compromise the Confidentiality of His Economic Advisers
September 18, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain appeared on Fox News Sunday again this weekend and he’s still out there touting his ridiculous 999 plan as some magical cure for our economy, when it’s pretty much more of the same that we’ve been hearing from most of these Republicans, which is to lower taxes on the rich at the expense of everyone else and privatize Social Security . When Chris Wallace pointed out to Cain that they took a look at his plan and his numbers didn’t quite add up and even though Cain claimed his plan was researched by leading economists, they couldn’t find any of their names. Cain’s explanation — he doesn’t want to “compromise their confidentiality.” I’d say it’s more likely he either doesn’t have any advisers who are actually economic experts, or they’re about as reputable as Arthur Laffer and his infamous Laffer Curve he drew on a napkin that got all the right-wingers worked into a frenzy as an excuse for the rich not to pay their fair share of taxes. Transcript via Fox News : WALLACE: OK, you are now pushing what you call the 999 plan for economic growth — 9 percent corporate flat tax and 9 percent personal flat tax and 9 percent sales tax, but you would eliminate the payroll tax, the estate tax and the tax on capitol gains. Question, what do you think that would do to the economy? CAIN: It would boost the economy and here’s why. Think about the fact that corporations now are looking at for the next year and few months a 35 percent top corporate tax rate. To wake up and say you mean the tax rate is going to be 9 percent? That is going to inspire the business community. Secondly, small businesses which generate most of the jobs, they are also going to be excited because it is going to treat subchapter S and S corporations the same. What the president doesn’t understand, a lot of people don’t understand, is when he throws around numbers like everybody making over $250,000 is going to impose another tax, he is punishing small business, because with a subchapter S corporation, if you eke out a profit, you have to run it through personal income tax and you could be penalized if you make too much money. WALLACE: Let me ask you about this, though, you say that this plan would be revenue neutral, yet you would lose all these rates — you would lower all these rates, you would eliminate the deductions and we’d end up with the same amount of total revenue for the government as what we currently have. We went to your website to try to check this out. There is no explanation on your website of how you arrived at 999 or how these numbers add up. CAIN: Here is how we arrived at it. I had some of the best economists in this country help me to develop this plan. You know, my background is mathematics. It was a simple regression analysis. We took the government data and looked at how much tax revenue from personal income tax, how much tax revenue came from corporate tax, how much revenue came from capitol gains tax, how much revenue from the death tax. We added them all up and you do a simple regression analysis and say in order to reduce this much on corporate income, personal income and national sales tax, what should that number be if we equally break up those three buckets. It was a simple regression analysis. WALLACE: Now you say that, and you say — and you just repeated that this plan was researched and developed by some of the leading economic thinkers in the country. Again we looked at your website, no mention of anyone. CAIN: No, I haven’t put them on there, — the most important thing is to put the plan on there. We are following up now with an official scoring of my plan, but because the way it was derived was so simple to produce such a simple concept we didn’t make that a priority. WALLACE: All right. But let me ask you about this, because Mitt Romney came out with a 59-point plan on jobs. Glenn Hubbard who was — is now the Dean of Columbia Business School and was the chairman of the council of economic advisers for George W. Bush wrote the forward, helped him develop the plan. Tell me the name of one of these leading economic thinkers who helped you come up with this plan. CAIN: The chairman of my economic advisers is a gentleman by the name of Rich Lowery of Cleveland, Ohio. He worked with a couple of other people quite frankly that are well known that I’m not at liberty to mention their names. WALLACE: Why not? CAIN: Because they have their own independence businesses and I don’t want to compromise their confidentiality at this point. When they tell me it is OK to mention their names publicly, I will mention it. But I — trust me, it was a couple of people that you know very well. But I don’t want to compromise their… WALLACE: But wouldn’t they be proud? I mean, if this is a great plan wouldn’t they be proud to say? CAIN: They’d be proud after I get it passed. And then they would be. But no, Chris, I got some people to work — help me go through the thinking on this that I’m not going to compromise their confidentiality at this point just to prove to people that this is a well thought out plan. WALLACE: Well, let me just say, because there isn’t a whole lot of back up, and we don’t have the bona fides of a guy like Glenn Hubbard. We tried to do our own very rough analysis and you are a lot better of this idea of regression analysis than we are. It looks to us under your plan corporations and the wealthy will end up paying a considerably less than they currently do, and lower income people, particularly the 45 percent, roughly of Americans who don’t pay any income tax now will end up paying a lot more true? CAIN: No. Not true. Everyone who works pays the payroll tax, which is 15.3 percent. So even if you don’t own a corporation and don’t have to pay corporate taxes, your tax goes from 15.3 to — Secondly on the national sales tax. WALLACE: Yeah, but what about the 45 percent who don’t pay income tax now? CAIN: A good economic growth plan should not be designed to help more people not pay taxes, Chris. And let me give you the statistic as to why. 50 percent of the taxpayers pay 97 percent of the taxes. What are we supposed to do, get that number to 50 percent paying 100 percent? No. And — WALLACE: I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying though that they’re going to end up paying more in taxes. CAIN: They are going to end up paying some taxes, but not necessarily more. And here’s why. The individual taxpayer will decide how they spend their money in terms of the 9 percent sales tax. OK? Now, their behavior will determine how much tax they pay. Only if they spend every dime that they make will they pay the full 9 percent. It will encourage savings and it will encourage people to be responsible for their own decision-making WALLACE: Mr. Cain, we’re going to have to leave it there. It is one of the new plans, one of the few new plans that’s come out. And we’re going to have to explore it some more. CAIN: We will have it officially explored (ph), and I’m going to try to get my advisers to allow me to use their name. WALLACE: Well, we would like to have them and you back on. Mr. Cain, it’s always a pleasure. CAIN: Thanks, Chris. It’s a pleasure. Thank you. WALLACE: And we’ll see you at the big debate on Thursday in Florida. CAIN: I’ll be there. I’ll be there. WALLACE: I am sure you will be. Me too.
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