Ever a believer in Occam’s razor, Republican presidential contender
Herman Cain has responded to criticism of his “9-9-9” tax reform plan
with one simple switcheroo. For the poor, he said, he would replace the
middle “9” with a zero.

The original formulation called for replacing the nation’s complex tax
code with a 9 percent corporate tax, 9 percent income tax and 9 percent
sales tax. As a chorus of critics pointed out, that would mean lower
taxes for the rich and higher taxes for the poor. So in a speech in
Detroit on Friday, Cain offered an amendment.

“If you are at or below the poverty level, your plan isn't 9-9-9, it is
9-0-9," he said, according to CNN. "Say amen y'all. 9-0-9.”

Amen?

But if this was the plan all along, as Cain asserted, why didn’t he
mention it before now? "We simply chose not to talk about this piece
earlier such that we could get people used to the whole concept," he
said, as reported by MSNBC.

Cain also has one other number for people to get used to: 3-3-3. The
surging Republican candidate told the Detroit News in an interview that
as president he would create “empowerment zones” in poor areas of cities
like Detroit, using further tax breaks to lure new business. In
exchange, those poor areas would get rid of “barriers”—presumably,
zoning regulations, environmental reviews and the like.

While a 9-0-9 section of the tax code would ease the burden of Cain’s
tax reform for some, however, it will remain regressive for many others.
As the Associated Press noted earlier this week, a study found that
9-9-9 would amount to a tax hike for 84 percent of Americans, with
middle-income households taking the biggest hit of all.
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I'll have my pizza with green peppers and onions.