Reverend Cliff Moone addresses the Mayor about City Politics at City Council

(Cliff's prepared statement starts one minute into the video)

During last night's City Council session (10/18/2011) the Mayor was called out for business as usual in relation to Personal Politics by Reverend Cliff Moone who approximately 10 months ago submitted an application to serve on the City of Hickory's Community Relations Council. By all right Mr. Moone, as a citizen of Hickory and through his qualifications as a church pastor, is more than qualified to serve in such a post. Mr. Moone first approached Alderman Hank Guess through a mutual connection about his desire to serve on the Community Relations Council and filled out and submitted all necessary and appropriate paper work in accordance with said position. It seemed as though it would be a go. Ald. Guess gave indications that he would be happy to nominate Mr. Moone for the position, but then backed out of support for Mr. Moone to serve in such a capacity, by saying to Mr. Moone that Mayor Wright had another person in mind to serve in said position. There was only one Caucasian position open at that time. Mr. Moone stated that this seemed understandable to him.

However, the position remained unfilled for several more months and Mr. Moone could not get a definitive rationale for the delay from the Mayor, after some time had passed the Mayor did make an appointment, but subsequently more Caucasian positions became available. This caused Mr. Moone to approach his ward representative Alderman Bruce Meisner, who informed him that he could not nominate Mr. Moone, because the Mayor would not approve his appointment. This occurred at the close of a Council meeting this Summer. Mr. Moone turned to Mayor Wright who was standing within five feet of Mr. Moone. Mr. Moone stated that he had said, "in that case the Mayor owes me an explanation of why he thinks I am not qualified to serve." Mayor Wright said, Well, we'll look at it some more."

Several weeks later, Mr. Moone heard from someone, whom he considers a reliable and reasonable source, that he wasn't appointed to the CRC, because he is a trouble maker. As the Mayor did not say this to Mr. Moone personally, he cannot attest to its accuracy. Still, because he has heard from several Council Members, including Council Member Fox, suggest that it is difficult to find citizens will to serve on city's varied committees and boards and it would be obvious that appears to be true or something like that. It struck me as odd that a long time pastor, CVCC instructor, and the first headmaster of the Hickory Christian Academy, as well as the former director of the Sylvan Learning Center should not be qualified or should be considered a "Trouble Maker."

To conclude, I stand here tonight having just received the honor of meeting and speaking with the President of the United States. And having been elected last Spring as the 10th District Democratic Chair, I stand here tonight to remove my name therefore from consideration, if it were ever considered, from serving on the Community Relations Council. In all honesty, I simply do not have the time. And while I would hope to serve the city in some capacity some day, now is clearly not the right time to do so. But, I thank you for a lesson in City Politics.



The Hound wonders if any of you get sick of this stuff.  Yeah, I applauded Cliff's comments at the end of the meeting, because he had the guts to stand up to the bullying. Isn't anyone tired of the bullying? The dynamics of all of this are utterly ridiculous. It is purely petty politics, because the Mayor is upset that Cliff has joined forces with the Citizens for Equity in Government. He is also upset that Cliff brought in the Chairperson of the Catawba County Democrat Party to dress down the Council about their handling of the drawing of the Ward maps.

Folks, I'm going to give you a hint. There is some bombshell information that is going to be dropped in your lap at a time of the choosing of the people who have the information. It is going to change the complete dynamics of your understanding of Hickory politics. That is all I am willing to tell you at this time, because it is not my information to divulge.


Alder Fox was speaking to Mr. Moone after the meeting about this issue and I wasn't going to butt into that conversation. Although I do have disagreements with Mrs. Fox, I honestly believe that she is supportive of people such as Cliff bringing their experience to the table of these Commissions. I then heard Alder Patton asking Cliff why he didn't come to her. Well, as he stated, "You are not my ward representative." 

What I state here is not personal, but I am sure it will be taken that way. While Alder Patton has made some great and valid points during council meetings and has been attentive towards listening to certain groups, I would argue that Alder Patton has not shepherded anything of substance through the council during her tenure. And this would have been no different. I have constantly witnessed her ask people why they (formally) addressed council and didn't bring their concerns to her. The reason why is because she has been ineffective. The least little push back she gets from the Mayor and she settles back into her seat. Effective leadership demands a lot more than reducing speeds through Hickory's arteries to that of a golf cart. Why does she always want everything kept out of public view? What was the true deal behind that Pride Festival?

The same goes for Alderman Guess. The Mayor is not a dictator, and as far as I understand, the position was open for anyone to appoint. It isn't like the Mayor has veto power. The Mayor has one vote. What is up with all of this kowtowing to the Mayor? HE HAS ONE VOTE!!! Hank could have gone ahead and nominated Cliff, but no, "The Mayor told me I couldn't." Hank I was there with you when you ran. You sat and had lunch with me and others at 1859 and told us what you were going to do. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? 

I like to think that one day I'll be able to participate in the renewal and revitalization of Hickory, but there is no sense of urgency with these people. The Mayor's always looking into everything. What has he looked into that has achieved results? Too much looking. Not enough Doing! They are comfortable in what they are "doing." And I am sure in their close knit group they are in agreement. They certainly agree on everything in Council meetings. 99% of votes are Unanimous Consent or through the Consent Agenda. There seems to be a Unanimous Consent that there will be no debate in Hickory.

I am a Republican. I have a degree in Finance. I love business. I have a passion for economics and the issues thereof. Basically most everything I own I have earned. I am a person deeply rooted in self-reliance, but I also believe in helping others. Cliff is a leader in the Democrat Party. He and I differ on many issues. We don't differ about the desire for the end result when it comes to Hickory. We differ about the process of how we are going to arrive at that result. 

In the end, I don't care about the process. I care about results. Petty people get lost in the minutia of process and then let their egos get in the way. They can't see the forest from the trees. I can have discussions with people and agree to disagree on subject matter dialogue.  I know that this man cares about Hickory, its community and its people. I admire those qualities. Having a person like Cliff not be able to serve a formal role within the city's structure of governance speaks volumes about where this city's problems lie!!!

Good Government isn't about the Property Tax Rate Folks!!!

We constantly hear this notion pushed forth by local officials that they have done us a favor by maintaining the Property Tax Rate. Within Catawba County that tax rate will be 53 cents per $100 of property value for the upcoming 2011-12 fiscal year, which is down from the 53.5 cents/$100 this fiscal year. In Hickory, the property tax rate will remain at 50 cents/$100 for the 17th straight year. In Conover, the property tax rate will remain at 40 cents/$100. In Newton, the property tax rate for the upcoming year will remain at 48 cents/$100 valuation.

What I have spoken of before and what my colleagues push forth in trying to bring the public to understanding is that the property tax rate doesn't tell the whole story. Yet, we have local officials that look at that rate as the local third rail of politics, just as we see with discussions about Social Security on the National Level. Local elected officials seem to believe that raising the property tax rate is a death sentence that will render them unelectable and City and County Managers seem to think that an increase in the rate will ultimately cost them their jobs. And on the other end, when they keep the rate at the same level, they seem to be pushing a notion that the maintenance of "The Rate" is the be all, end all of fiscal restraint and prosperity. Look at the City of Hickory where they may as well place it on a flag as a motto, "The City of Hickory has maintained the same Property rate for Umpteen Years."

I know what I am proposing is blasphemy to the Good Ole Boys who run the show around here and their Flock of Seagulls, but if you critically look at the numbers, then you will realize that "The Rate" really needs to be placed in a proper context. Let me ask, When one looks at the specific issue of property taxes and critically thinks about the issues that I have put forth above, then one realizes that the tax rate is the least of our problems. I doubt anyone who has owned a home could say that they aren't paying a lot more property tax now than they were 17 years ago. If "The Rate" is the Holy Sacrament of Taxes, then how could that be? Real Estate values escalated during the Real Estate bubble and the local governmental entities reassessed the value of your home over that time up and up and up and now they are reluctant to deflate those values to truly reflect the current resell level. They are reluctant to do this because so many people are basically financially illiterate and the local governments have fostered and taken advantage of that financial illiteracy through political hyperbole.

Once again let's get back to the bottom line. That's what local officials tell you they are all about. Mayor Wright, here in Hickory, constantly points to the fact that the John Locke Foundation rankings show that Hickory has tumbled to No. 15 in local tax burden ranking, which is seven spots below its No. 8 ranking in 2008, the largest drop of any city in North Carolina's largest population group. The list ranks 34 municipalities with at least 25,000 residents. At the beginning of the millennium, Hickory ranked 3rd in tax burden in 2000 and 2nd in 2001. So it appears that we are headed in the right direction when one looks at the taxes and fees. But, let's look at the cities who were ranked as one through five;; Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Asheville, Mooresville, and Wilmington topped the rankings of combined city and county costs per person. When one looks at the Economic Output and rankings of economic success, those five communities are frequently brought to attention by national studies and publications.

Can you see that those John Locke rankings show just one aspect of the economic dynamics of a community. They show the static cost of government per individual within specific municipalities in the State of North Carolina. This doesn't show the Standard of Living or the Cost of Living of those specific communities. And this definitely does not reflect an individual's Economic Opportunity within those communities either.

You see folks, it isn't all about cutting taxes. It is all about management. The money is not the Government's money. It is the people's money. It needs to be managed in the interests of the people of the community. We have so many local government officials that obsess about the unfunded balance in their communities that they aren't only cutting the fat, they have gotten to the point that they are basically cutting into the bone. Yes, there most definitely needs to be a rainy day fund, but when there is a surplus, then that means that the people of that community are being overtaxed. If there is a surplus, then in my opinion, it is OK to use it towards dynamic investment that can lay a foundation towards the creation of jobs or improving the community's quality of life. Letting that Unfunded Balance sit and rot at 2% interest, while the Nation is facing 10% inflation is not a savvy economic move. It means that that money is losing its value.

The final issue that I would like to summarize is the need to bring integrity back to the property tax system. Yes, local governments need monies to run governmental functions. Yes, we can argue all day long about what that entails,. But, the biggest issue is being square with the citizens. That is where the issue of Revenue Neutrality comes to the picture. We need to see a frank discussion with the public. The public needs to be told that the assessed value of their home is going to be reduced, but the Tax rate is going to rise so that the current level of governmental services can be maintained.

I don't necessarily agree with Catawba County Government's Real Estate Assessments and they are in charge of the assessments utilized by everyone in this County. I believe that they have seen such a drastic reduction in Commercial and Industrial Property viability and value, along with the loss of assessed equipment in those structures, that they have felt forced to maintain the burden on residential property owners. Residential Property values increased by 3%, while Commercial Property values fell by 3% and Industrial property values fell by 5%. The State mandates that revaluations are to be as close to 100% of market value as possible and Catawba County met this criteria. This is factored by a random sample of actual real estate sales that took place during the previous year at what is considered "Fair Market Value." But "Fair Market Value" does not take into account foreclosed properties sold by Banks at cut rate prices. We see a lot of this going on and in the end Residential Property Owners are having to compete with these properties when/if they attempt to sell their home. This honestly needs to be looked at and reevaluated by the NC General Assembly. Leaving the Banks in charge of the Hen House allows these home values to be overvalued.

I do appreciate that the County Manager and the County Commissioners have reduced the property rate to 53 cents to maintain Revenue Neutrality at the same time that they have aimed to make their budget more efficient . We have not seen the same from the local municipalities, who did not lower their tax rate to lower the burden. When we look at the City of Hickory, we also see that they are going to see a surplus in their budget, which will be used to increase the unfunded balance again and there is no stated purpose for what that excess capital is there for. If they aren't going to use the money, then they need to lower the rate.

I can appreciate local budgets being cautious. It is easy to see that the economy is not growing and local governments do not want to chase revenues that could lead to huge losses. But, we are going to have to spend money to make money. The Conover Station and the Eco-Complex are trend setting investments in these hard times that will pay huge dividends when the progression of those investments fall into place. These investments, in my opinion, will flourish under better economic circumstances. These tax revenues are the people's money. The people should be educated on this process and it should always be a transparent process. We should never hide the cost of government by increasing fees or overvaluing assets in an economic downturn. Level with the people and build trust. Don't underestimate their intelligence. In most cases it isn't that the people aren't intelligent enough to understand. It is that the government officials don't want to break the numbers down into terms that the public can understand. Maybe that is because they don't understand them themselves.

Obama, You are not one of us. You are not the 99%!!!

I come home and get on the Internet to check out the news. I go to ESPN to check out football scores and see the results of the Indycar racing finale for the 2011 season. And the cold hard slap in the face is that Dan Wheldon died in a horrific crash 11 laps into the race. Indycar Open Wheel is a perilous sport and I have now seen more than a handful of athletes die racing on the cutting edge.

Then I can't read anymore sports so I go check out the Drudge Report and I am about as sick as I can be. Sometimes I don't think after what I have seen over the last year my heart can go any lower. The front page of the Drudge Report has Czar Obama trying to co-opt the Occupy Movement and turn the class issue in his favor by talking about the 99%. Now, what I say here is going to raise the ire of the World Wrestling Federation Political Junkies, but Obama represents the one-tenth of one percent not the 99 percent.

Look at what Obama has done for the Wall Street Cronies and the Federal Reserve. He reappointed Ben Bernanke after Bernanke's complete mismanagement of the Banking Crisis. The Federal Reserve inflated the Real Estate Bubble through its artificial low interest rates. This hurts people who have retirement accounts, because it lowers what they can make on money market funds. Thus it hurts senior citizens. Then at the same time his Obamacare debacle looks to gut Social Security and Medicare at the same time it enriched the banking cartel's who own the Health Insurance Industry. Do you think the Health Insurance Industry represents the one-percent?

I have seen the lack of care afforded by our healthcare industry in my dealings with it through the health issues that my late grandmother had and my mother is now experiencing. I don't expect perfect care. I expect people to be treated with dignity and not looked at as revenue generators. The corporate medical machine looks at people for money, when they have found a way to exhaust people's money then they are left to fend for themselves. Folks, you better understand that from the get-go, because that is the dynamics of the game. The reason why healthcare costs have spiraled out of control is because of the convoluted system created through the marriage of Corporate Ponzi Insurance, the Corporate Ponzi Medical Industry, and the United States Federal Ponzi Bureaucracy.

Back to our President, look at how he represents himself in this tough economy. He gets to play golf all the time. His biggest face time is picking NCAA brackets and talking about sports. He and his wife are jetsetting everywhere on the public's dime and this is a man who has never held a job in the private sector. He is so far out of touch, he may as well be walking on the moon. He is certainly not the right man for the circumstances we currently find ourselves in. He is twiddling, while this nation's prospects are going up in smoke.

I have seen it all and frankly I've had enough. Everything in this country revolves around paper money and nothing revolves around the substance of empowering people and working to help them build and maintain a good quality of life. We can't build efficiencies into the system, because we have some money hungry jerks trying to screw people and not deliver on service and quality. You see all of these business owners, especially Corporate America including the Governmental Corporatocracy, looking to cut corners and give the minimum amount of service necessary to meet their legal obligation. You see the people at the top looking to deliver big bonuses to themselves at the expense of the consumers who purchase their products, while the viability of the middle class continues to be diminished, because they have offshored the productive capacity of our economy.

And I know you can't blame it all on Obama. Hell, he's just a puppet. In my opinion, he is the weakest President in the history of the United States. We always hear about Hoover, well this is your modern day Hoover. His administration  can't get out of the way of itself, which makes many of us wonder if they are doing this on purpose.

Obama's constant speaking out of both sides of his mouth has to make one wonder about his emotional and mental stability  How can one be that two faced and look at themselves in the mirror. I understand that he is just reading words off of a teleprompter, but let me ask you, who is writing what he reads on the teleprompter? And would you endure representing something you don't believe in? Would you not rebel?

The article from the Financial Times ( Obama extends support for protesters -Financial Times - Shannon Bond - October 16, 2011) states that Obama "offered more support for protesters against the global financial system after a weekend of demonstrations in cities around the world, but called on them not to “demonise” those who worked on Wall Street."

Now you WWE Democrat types looking to buy into what Obama reverbs off of his teleprompter tell me how that is possible. We look at the scandals that have beset this administration like Solyndra (not to mention the Fast and Furious Gun Running Scheme). We look at the Fraudclosure issue involving the MRSA robosigning issue and how government officials want to sweep this under the rug after all of these banks have illegally foreclosed on people after utilizing predatory lending practices, including zero down/ARMs, to put them in houses they couldn't afford. We see how rating's agencies such as Standard and Poor's and Moody's were rating junk assets as AAA for Investment Bank favors, such as Goldman Sachs, and Goldman Sachs is pumping and dumping this stuff on both ends. Hmmm... Now who were 2008 Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's biggest contributors?

We see all of this corruption on Wall Street in conjunction with the Federal Reserve and Government at all levels from this President and administration right down to Congressmen, Senators, Governors, Mayors, City Officials, and the Bureaucracy and no one goes to jail, but we aren't supposed to get upset or "Demonize" anyone.

Why do you think they are speaking out of both sides of their mouths? Because they don't want to be held accountable, because at the least they are incompetent, but more likely they are crooked.

We're going to see some justice. There always comes a time where the darkness of corruption is met head on with the equal and opposite light of justice. The events are never pretty. The people who caused this mess and have benefited from it are going to try to control the outcome. If they were smart, they would plead mea culpa and fork over what they have stolen and try to restore the health of our economic system, but I honestly think their greed far outstrips their intelligence. They are going to continue on speaking out of both sides of their mouths, not doing anything meaningful to restore the system they have corrupted, and trying to buy time. But, time will continue to move along and the economy will continue to worsen, because what we are seeing is not a normal business cycle. It is a breakdown crisis and what has broken the system is fraud and corruption and that must be addressed in order to move our economy and society forward.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- October 16, 2011

Student banned after debit card/student ID card complaint is reinstated - NBC - Bob Sullivan - October 14, 2011 - A North Carolina community college student who was banned from campus after complaining about being forced to use a school-branded debit card has been reinstated. Reversal of the decision leaves a critical question unanswered, however: Why are schools around the country forcing students to get into bad financial habits by using MasterCard-branded debit cards laden with booby-trap fees?.....      Catawba Valley Community College student Marc Bechtol was suspended for two semesters earlier this week after complaining about the debit card on the school's Facebook page, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Bechtol's Facebook complaint included a suggestion urging readers to find "good viruses" to send to the school or register it for porn sites. On Oct. 4, Bechtol was pulled from class and told he was no longer allowed on campus.....      After the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) intervened, Bechtol was reinstated. The school viewed Bechtol’s post as a threat, but FIRE argued that it was protected free speech and not a serious threat.



US budget gap widens, tops $1 trln for 3rd year - Reuters - Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - October 14, 2011 - The U.S. budget gap widened slightly in fiscal 2011, staying above $1 trillion for a third straight year and providing fodder for a political battle over taxes and spending ahead of next year’s presidential election. The Treasury Department report on Friday comes just over two months after an epic showdown over the nation’s debt ceiling that pushed the United States close to a debt default and led to a downgrade of America’s prized AAA credit rating. The shortfall in September, the final month of the fiscal year, widened to $64.57 billion compared to the same month a year earlier, although it came in at a few billion dollars less than economists had projected. The annual deficit was $1.299 trillion, up from 1.294 trillion in fiscal 2010.


Energy firms' profits per customer rise 733%, says Ofgem - Terry Macalister, Dan Milmo and Lisa Bachelor - October 14, 2011 Energy regulator proposes 'radical reform' of energy market and simpler tariffs as it reveals net margin for typical customers has risen from £15 in June to £125 in October - The Guardian - Terry Macalister, Dan Milmo and Lisa Bachelor - October 14. 2011 - A furious row has broken out today between the energy regulator and the "big six" power companies after Ofgem in effect accused the utilities of profiteering by increasing their profit per dual-fuel customer by 733% – from £15 to £125 – through a slew of price rises.....



“It’s Going to Get a Lot Worse”: ECRI’s Achuthan Says New Recession Unavoidable - Aaron Task - Yahoo - Daily Ticker – Fri, September 30, 2011 - Weakness in leading economic indicators has become so pervasive the Economic Cycle Research Institute now predicts a new recession is unavoidable. "The vicious cycle is starting where lower sales, lower production, lower employment and lower income [leads] back to lower sales," co-founder Lakshman Achuthan declares in the accompanying video. Whereas Achuthan said the jury is still out in late August, the weakness in leading economic indicators — and ECRI uses a dozen for the U.S. alone, he notes — has become a "contagion" that is spreading like "wildfire."


U.S. Collapse Predicted - GoldSeek - October 14, 2011 - Casey Research Chief Economist Bud Conrad believes the United States is acting as a late-stage empire, acting aggressively on the world stage, lowering its moral standards and debasing its currency. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report at the Casey Research/Sprott Inc. "When Money Dies" Summit, he explains the options for how the inevitable collapse will occur. The Gold Report: At the Casey Research/Sprott Inc. Summit, you gave a presentation called, "A Crisis of Confidence." After all the government stimulus from the U.S. and the rest of the world aimed at injecting liquidity and keeping interest rates low, why didn't any of it work? Why is the economy still hurting? Bud Conrad: First, printing money doesn't create wealth. Putting bits in a computer doesn't create wealth. When politicians hand out money, they are the ones who get powerful and the banks get wealthy. The middle class with savings gets hurt. What creates wealth is people working and creating things. Internationally, the Chinese are papering over their slowing growth rate by providing liquidity, but paper money systems will collapse. That is the reality. The global financial system is supremely unstable. When people wake up to the fact that this is a "king ain’t got no clothes" economy, we will see a run to the exits.



The Officials in New York are out of Control - These protests will not stop!!!

The Real Herman Cain says "We didn't need to Audit the Federal Reserve"

Herman Cain Lies to Ron Paul's Face About the Federal Reserve at GOP Debate



Always falling back on the old "You can't believe everything you read on the internet, yada, yada, yada... Mantra. I agree you can't believe everything you read on the internet, but you can believe even less from the Conditioned Programming Lame Stream Media. The Internet is a resource receptacle just like a library. You go there to find information. If you have a couple of well-rounded resources with in-depth research of information, then it is as good as gold. It all depends upon the researcher, not upon the resource. Antone who doesn't understand this is intellectually lazy and I doubt they have done much research themselves.


Many of the lazy reporters covering the debate went along with Mr. Cain's response that you can't believe everything you read on the internet and then called Ron Paul out as though he didn't have his facts straight? As was pointed out on the United Liberty Blog. by author Jason Pye:

Well, there’s a problem with this. Herman Cain wasn’t misquoted. While filling in for Neal Boortz back in Decembert 2010, Cain was very dismissive of calls to audit the Federal Reserve (you can hear it in his voice) and did in fact say that people were calling for such a statutory measure “don’t know enough about [the central bank]” (emphasis mine):

[T]he Federal Reserve already has so many audits, it’s ridiculous. I don’t know why people think we’re gonna learn this great amount of information by auditing the Federal Reserve. Now, I no longer serve on the board of the Federal Reserve. I’m not being defensive of the Federal Reserve; in fact, some of the policies and some of the actions of the Federal Reserve, I don’t agree with because the attitude and the non-politization in the 90’s when I served is totally different than what’s going on today. But that’s another matter.

But people who say, “we outta audit the Federal Reserve because we don’t know enough about it.” Well, here’s the advice I’ve given to people who ared worried about an audit of the Federal Reserve; call ‘em up, and ask ‘em if you can stop by and have one of their PR people or one of their Public Relations people explain to you how the Federal Reserve operates.

I think a lot people are calling for this audit of the Federal Reserve because they don’t know enough about it. There’s no secrets going on in the Federal Reserve, to my knowledge. And I tell people, we’ve got 12 Federal Reserve banks, find out which district you’re in, call ‘em up and go from there.

We don’t need to waste money with another commission, or an audit that’s not necessary, because, folks, we’ve gotta lot of other problems we need to worry about.

Cain’s TARP talk, praise of the Fed could hurt him with conservative voters - The Hill - Cameron Joseph - October 13, 2011 - Businessman Herman Cain has shot to the top of the polls with support from Tea Party members, but his backing of the Troubled Asset Relief Program and opposition to auditing the Federal Reserve could hurt him with those same voters... “Among the Tea Party audience, the TARP bailout is something they’re adamantly against, and they’re going to absolutely need to hear more from him on this issue to be comfortable with him,” said Russell. “I don’t know one Tea Party activist who’d say it’s a bad idea to audit the Fed, that’s not a popular position for him to be staking out.”... Cain served as chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve in the mid-1990s and, in Tuesday’s debate, expressed his admiration for former Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. “The way Alan Greenspan oversaw the Fed and the way he coordinated with all of the Federal Reserve banks, I think that it worked fine back in the early 1990s,” Cain said.


Tax group: 9-9-9, a 'major tax cut' for the rich, 'substantial' increase on others - NBC - Domenico Montanaro, Political Reporter, NBC News - October 13, 2011 - The non-partisan Tax Policy Center is readying a report on Cain’s plan, though it is waiting for more details from the campaign. But it has come to some conclusions already.    Cain’s plan "cuts taxes for the rich and raises taxes on the poor,” Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the center, tells First Read. He added that it would create a "much more regressive tax system.”    The plan would represent a “major tax cut” for the rich and raise taxes “substantially” on the poor and middle class, Williams said. "Given that a big chunk doesn’t pay any income tax, this would be a big tax increase on people at bottom end. At the top end, the opposite happens."    The top end would go from about a 35% income tax rate to 9%. "That's a big, big drop," Williams said, adding that the capital-gains tax would be another added benefit for the wealthiest. "People at the top would see far and away the largest share of the gains. Those people are going to see a huge tax cut."    Currently, there is no federal sales tax. There are state sales taxes, however, and Cain’s plan would add 9% to those. So, in Iowa, for example, where there is a 6% sales tax, that would mean a 15% sales tax.