Cain's electrified fence "joke"...and the real "joke" about 9-9-9
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Monday, October 24, 2011 05:23
VIEWED: 4839
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Quote:
Herman Cain said he had been joking when he called for a fence along the Mexican border with “electrified barbed wire” that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally. He added: “America needs to get a sense of humor.”
But The New York Times, which reported on Cain making those comments during campaign stops over the weekend in Tennessee, didn’t see Cain’s comments in the same light at all, writing that they had not been presented as a joke, but as “serious commentary” that drew “cheers,” rather than laughter, from the audience.
Cain has in fact been making this “joke” - whether you see it that way or not - on the stump for some time. This video below was taken last May, in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Watch it for yourself. Here’s the text of Cain’s remarks:
“We’ve got to secure the border. Truly secure it. I had a caller one night call in: ‘Mr. Cain, you conservatives have got to stop this talk about building a fence.’ I said, Why? ‘You know that is impractical.’ Oh really? I think I had just got back from China, and I went to the Great Wall of China. They built a wall; I think with today’s technology we can build a fence. And if they were to put me in charge of the fence, I know we’d build a fence. Somebody asked me, well, what kind of fence would you build? I tell you, it would be a combination of technology and a real fence. It would be about 20 feet high. It would have electrified barbed wire on the top. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/2011/1017/Herman-Cain-joke-Elec
trified-fence-on-the-US-Mexico-border now he say's it was a joke. Why am I not surprised the audience cheered rather than laughed? Because THEY took it seriously, of course, and they love the idea.
The man himself is the joke. His 9-9-9 sounds real nice, but when you look closely at it, IT's a joke, too...but a very, very bad one!Quote:
Anyone wanna guess what's REALLY behind it?
If the Republican candidate's 9-9-9 tax plan – which would set up a 9 percent federal sales tax, 9 percent federal payroll tax, and 9 percent federal business tax – were to go into effect, the new federal sales tax would piggyback on top of state and local sales taxes already in existence.
As a result, sales taxes around the nation would be considerably higher than 9 percent.
The residents of Tennessee and Arizona would, on average, have to pay more than 18 percent in combined state, local, and federal taxes, using data from the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group in Washington.
At least 12 states would have average sales taxes over 17 percent. California, for example, would come in at a combined rate of 17.13 percent.
And residents of four states – Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon – would have to start paying a sales tax. Currently, they have none.
It's a glimpse of of the potential nationwide effects of Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 plan, which would result in a median national sales-tax rate of 15.8 percent, according to the Tax Foundation data. To compare sales taxes by state, the data average local sales taxes across each state, since they can vary widely from one locality to another. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2011/1014/Herman-Cain
-9-9-9-sticker-shock-18-sales-tax-possible-in-some-statesQuote:
Yeah, right:
To the Cain campaign, these statistics miss the point. Since personal taxes would drop significantly with only one, 9 percent tax rate, individuals would have more disposable income to buy things which would be more expensive, 9-9-9 backers say.Quote:
So the rich would get even RICHER, and we'd all pay more for goods, which THEY can easily afford
“I understand his theory,” says Michelle Ahlman, executive director of the Arizona Retailers Association in Mesa.
But she worries about “sticker shock,” when customers see how much an item will be with the new sales tax. “People will balk at it and either turn to buying online or not spend at all,” she says.
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Much less attention is paid to the fact that his 9-9-9 plan is just an early step in his tax reform plans. (Taxes you'll still pay under Cain's plan)
Ultimately, Cain wants the country to adopt a Fair Tax. He's not the first presidential candidate to propose it. In 2008, for instance, Mike Huckabee made it a central part of his economic plan.
So what's a Fair Tax exactly?
In essence, it's a national sales tax that would replace the current tax code entirely and all the credits, deductions and exemptions that go along with it.
With a national sales tax you would pay federal tax on what you spend rather than on what you earn, save or invest. The idea is to make the tax system less of a hindrance to economic growth.
Cain hasn't offered any specifics on how he would set up a Fair Tax. But here's how the general proposal put forth by Fair Tax proponents would work.
You would pay what amounts to a 30% tax on top of the price of anything you purchase. So for something that costs $1 you would pay $1.30. The extra 30 cents represents 23% of the final purchase price ($1.30). That's why you will hear Fair Tax supporters say that the tax rate under the Fair Tax is just 23%.
A Fair Tax, like any tax that applies across the board to everyone regardless of income, would hit the poor harder than others. http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/17/news/economy/cain_999_plan/index.htm?h
pt=hp_t1 there you go. Another version of class warfare, disguised as "less income tax!"
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off 
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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.
Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his "9-9-9" plan to rewrite the nation's tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.
http://news.yahoo.com/long-ties-koch-brothers-key-cains-campaign-11051
8961.html
EDIT: I see you posted this under "the Rise of Cain" thread, which I didn't even read until now. (I no longer participate in- or even read- many threads)
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The video clip I saw he used the word " electrocuted," then went back and corrected himself to "electrified". The audience cheered the first version. He also went on to say, " Put up a sign that says, 'This fence will kill you.'" No doubt about what he meant.
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I don't think he was joking either, NewOld. Given he's said it several times, and it's not been laughed at, it's a pretty obvious "back-pedaling", as so many have done, on something he said that worked for his audience but which he has to deny to the general public.
Hey, works for him!
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
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I heard that Cain got the idea for his 9-9-9 plan from a somewhat imperfect simulation game for city building and management. The 9% 9% and 9% are the default tax rates in the game.
Though I guess it could also be a coincidence.
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Even farm animals learn not to come near an electrified fence.
Cain's right, again.
" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "
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"Even farm animals learn not to come near an
electrified fence."
It's hard to learn a 'lesson' when the first one kills you.
And once again, we see little Rappy for what he really is.
Geezer, do you really want to be seen as being on the same side as little Rappy? At this point you must be noticing he's a dead weight that will drag you under.
While Wall St. is going through the roof, Main St. is paying all the bills.
Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?
Yeah, me neither....
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
"Even farm animals learn not to come near an
electrified fence."
It's hard to learn a 'lesson' when the first one kills you.
And once again, we see little Rappy for what he really is.
Geezer, do you really want to be seen as being on the same side as little Rappy? At this point you must be noticing he's a dead weight that will drag you under.
Farm animals can't read, either. But they see one of their own get zapped, they can figure it out, I'm guessing.
Why am I 'little' , in your mind, simply because I have a defensible point of view, and you don't ?
And why are you addressing Geezer, who has yet to even respond to this thread ?
" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "
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...I think the main objection here is comparing human beings to farm animals.
Last I checked, we don't harvest illegal Mexican residents or border-jumpers for their meat. That's not even me getting into the discussion about whether that's an insult to their intelligence, or whether that's dehumanizing (yes to both).
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