After the debate, Chris Moody interviewed Mr. Cain, and learned his views on Preisdent Obama's class warfare rhetoric:
"After a few caffeine-heavy refills at our corner table, I asked him about President Obama's new effort to raise taxes on the wealthy, and Cain just about blew a blood vessel--especially when I mentioned the part where Obama says it's about "math" not "class warfare."Yes, it is tiresome... tiresome to the extreme. And here is one of the few candidates with the hutzpah to lay it out for us.
"Can I be blunt? That's a lie," Cain said, before the sound of his voice began to rise noticeably higher. "You're not supposed to call the president a liar. Well if you're not supposed to call the president a liar, he shouldn't tell a lie. If it's not class warfare, it's highway robbery. He wants us to believe it's not class warfare, oh okay, it's not class warfare. Pick my pockets, because that's what he's doing!"
Cain paused, took a breath and looked at me.
"I'm not mad at you, I just get passionate about this stuff," he said. "I have to tell people because I get so worked up . . . . I'm listening to all this bullshit that he's talking about, 'fairness' and 'balanced approach' to get this economy going."
Now that's a good man.
Cain has made a few "gaffes" -- spoken or acted out of personal ignorance -- but, and unlike Our Zero (Who art The Won), he seems educatable. Just as importantly, he seems honest and direct; and, unlike Romney and Perry (neither of whom are conservatives, in any event) he seems like he really does understand what is destroying the nation, and aims to turn it around.
ReplyDelete"You're not supposed to call the president a liar ..."
ReplyDeleteWe *all* know that that "rule" will go by the wayside during the Cain administration.
We *all* know that that "rule" will go by the wayside during the Cain administration.
ReplyDeleteCertainly. In fact, they wont know what rule you're talking about. Never heard of it. And the fact that Cain is black? Please, it will be made to mean nothing in terms of anything for anyone or any body, and though I am somewhat sympathetic to that on principle, it would show marked hypocrisy on the left (as usual), and it really would not quite be true.
I think any of our contenders would make a better president than the Golfer-n-Chief.
ReplyDeleteA little nervous about the 999 plan, though.
Considering that we shouldn't be taxing income at all -- we should tax spending, rather than earnings -- his 99 plan isn't perfect. Plus, don't VATs accumulate at each stage of manufacture or processing, and then get buried in the price?
ReplyDeleteBut, it's likely better than what we endure now.
Perhaps. But I don't us to give the fedgov the ability to tax income AND sales at the same time. Cain's intent may be good and want it to be short term, but who's to say it wouldn't get abused by the next president or Congress?
ReplyDeleteExactly.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with a new tax while reducing an old one is that you may get the first without the second. Still, I like the fact that he is willing to put a plan out there, and a plan whose focus is on growing the economy and encouraging investment and business, not just a bunch of baloney about more government spending. Obama's fallacious attempt to infuse the economy with money in point of fact has increased uncertainty and burned up cash reserves out of the private sector, while burying the nation in a mountain of debt.
I love to hear Cain speak. It's downright refreshing.
Just to clarify, Cain's plan doesn't include a Value Addded tax. That is the most insidious tax scheme ever devised, where tax is added at every stage of a production process based on some hypothetical "added value"--a number wholly outside of reality (there isn't a real market for items at these stages so that determnation is really out of the taxman's ass.)
ReplyDeleteIt leads to an army of tax soothsayers and arbitrary taxes--just how gov'ts that create such taxes like it. Taxes In Hell are VAT. And that's where they should be confined.
Cain has an personal income tax, a corporate tax, and a national sales tax--each at 9%. That wouldn't cut it unless some deep cuts are made and those untouchable programs cut.
I'm glad to hear that Cain isn't advocating a VAT (what I'd read said that one of the 9s was a VAT); I agree, they are VATs are hellish ... they are what one can expect a socialistic worldview to propose.
ReplyDeleteBut, we shouldn't be taxing corporate income any more that we should personal income. And, in fact, even less should we be taxing corporate income -- for, corporation are legal fictions: they don't actually exist and they don't actually have income; only actually existing persons (that would be you and me) own anything or have any income.
I agree about corporate taxes but you can never sell that to the public. Corporate taxes are
ReplyDeletepaid by regular people as they buy the products as you know. But most people don't know that and that's what the Democrats count on.
Well obviously I don't know about all your tax stuff and what have you, but I've seen this Cain chap on the idiot box and I like him a lot. I like his style, and he seems to be part of that Palin-empowered wave of Republicans that, when they get attacked, come back swinging rather than grovelling. Such a change from that fellow you ran last time.
ReplyDeleteBut in all honesty, do you think Obama's out on his bread box this time, or will America give him another chance, as much to save their own faces as his?
Seriously, all wishful thinking aside, as a complete outsider I'd love to know what the real general mood is over there right now, because here in Europe the guy's still the Messiah. I'm serious. We'll have to see film of him burning down an orphanage before they'll turn the record over.
First of all, Novemeber 2012 is a long way off, and much can happen between now and then. In fact, the Democrats can be relied upon to make sure that something happens (the Bush DUI revelation in November 2000, the bogus Dan Rather revelations on Bush's National Guard service in September 2004, the Mark Foley page texts in September 2006, and so forth), so one never knows, but as it stands the nation is no longer basking in the Obama glow as Europe seems to be, largely because we are in the midst of a serious economic downturn, and it appears the actions the president has taken may have helped his special interests supporters but not the general public. The Democrat party is very concerned, and such highly valued strategists such as James Carville have suggested on the national media that Obama start firing people on his staff just to show that he does in fact understand that people are hurting. No one wants to challenge the first black president, but there is serious discussion of Obama stepping down much as Johnson did in 1968, and of Hillary running as the Democrat candidate in his place. It is more than idle speculation, and it speaks to the poor economy the nation is suffering through and the undermining of support President Obama has suffered. But it's still all a long way off. There is much that could be said, and the guys on this thread could all weigh in as well from their respective areas, but I believe that is it in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you, Bedes!
...because here in Europe the guy's still the Messiah.
ReplyDeleteFine then. You take him. Yes, we all see (through the BBC) what you think of him. Obama has a plan that is going to save the world's economy in Doctor Who and every yob and yobette on the street is putting in an order for the good stuff for the next fortnight. But unlike the reality we live in, he doesn't have to be found out that he doesn't really have a plan. The Master never intervenes to replace the entire world's population with himself.
Besides being caught planless, voters sense that
tax increases are not a very good idea when the world is on the brink of a depression. What's more, Democrats have proven that they really didn't really come up with any great new ideas in the time they were out of power. As short as our attention spans have become and how bad our collective memories now are, tax and spend and spend and tax can't be made to sound like new ideas. Yet Obama keeps regifting us with the same stale fruit cake. What he can't get through Congress, he does anyway with his regulatory agencies stocked with Leftist zealots. Even voters suspect that it might be a bad idea to keep kicking American business when it's down. True, the media here has been playing the Obama song without missing a beat. Nut voters still go to the grocery store each week and they see that prices have doubled in their carts, as opposed to those at the Commerce Dept where they can make do with a 3% rise.
The spell broke in 2010 and if things don't turn around completely in the next six months Obama's a goner. The Democrats that control the Senate couldn't figure out who's behind the Obama Jobs Bill and the taxes that go with it, just this week. They have to think about their own tap dancing routines for the 2012 election now. And who knows, maybe the Media will even discover Operation Gunrunner and start reporting on it. They learned more than the words to the The Internationale at the Columbia School of Journalism after all.
We'll see.
"...tax and spend and spend and tax can't be made to sound like new ideas. Yet Obama keeps regifting us with the same stale fruit cake."
ReplyDeleteBravo! You can always count on Darrell to be packing. By the way Darrell, loved your comments to George Pal on Don Quixote over at everybody's favorite, The Hyacinth Girl. That's good stuff.
Thanks, James! The Venerable Bede inspired me.
ReplyDeleteHe is such a formidable writer and obvious intellect that our friends who drink from Marx think twice about dropping their usual comments over at his site, much less engage him in actual debate. Sort of how ne'er-do-wells and others looking for trouble stay away from that villain in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series--a giant with the birth defect that doesn't allow him to feel pain.
You introduced me to Bede's site, James, and I'm glad you did. Now if only I could write like he does every time.