Herman Cain is thrilled about this:
@THEHermanCain: My campaign does not sponsor or endorse Spirit Airlines, but they are now offering a 9-9-9 Vacation Plan! http://bit.ly/...
Here's Spirit's ad:
Notice something small at the bottom? Yeah, that's known as fine print. Perhaps Cain should have thought about that before he Tweeted, because as with his own plan, the devil's in the details of Spirit Airline's offer.
First, of the 40 airfares offered in the 9-9-9 Vacation Plan, none of them actually cost $9—unless you're willing to take a one-way vacation. And even if you were willing to take a one-way vacation, only 8 of the 40 airfares actually cost $9—not including taxes and fees.
I did manage to find one of those vacations, flying between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Check out what the total cost ended up being:
$57.38, a little more than six times more than $9. But hey, when you see a clever marketing slogan like 9-9-9 you pretty much know ahead of time that it's bullshit, right? There's
always hidden fees and costs.
And when a guy who used to run a pizza corporation tells you he's got a tax plan called 9-9-9, you can be absolutely 100% certain that it's not exactly what he says it is.
There's at least three huge problems with Cain's plan and he hasn't explained how he'd deal with them.
The first problem is that it would end up being a huge tax cut for high income individuals while raising taxes on most everybody else.
The second problem is that it would raise less revenue than our current system, requiring either massive spending cuts or even higher taxes on the very same people who'd just gotten their taxes hiked to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy.
The third problem is that by putting in place a national sales tax, it would create a huge new tax burden for retirees who had worked and saved their entire adult lives under a federal tax code that raised money from income and payroll taxes. For them, it would be an unfair double whammy.
For some reason, conservatives just love Herman Cain's plan. But even by their own standards, it's an awful idea. It may have a catchy name, but if they spend just a couple of minutes thinking about what it would mean for them, they'll quickly realize what a terrible idea it really is. And what awful presidential candidates they have.
If they don't, they'll only have themselves to blame.