Okay, I’ve largely or completely (I think) avoided even mentioning Herman Cain, but I can’t help myself now. It’s been a temptation, but I’ve resisted it, largely as penance for too frequent posting about Sarah and Michelle. It’s not that I put Herman in their league, by the way. If anything, on the continuum of crazy, he’s actually sort of toward the sane side of things. That’s relative to them, of course, which still puts him well within the borders of the Land of the Insane.
I feel I can break my self imposed silence, being as Herman is enjoying his day in the Sun as the leading not-Romney in the race. He’s the frontrunner, so he’s fair game, easy mark though he is.
I direct your attention to the latest: an actual analysis of Cain’s tax “plan”. The article to which I’ve linked above has a bar graph showing the amounts by which taxes would increase for various income brackets below $200,000.00. After that, of course, taxes decrease, as is only right and just. Matter of fact, they literally plunge.
I would submit that the graph is not telling the entire story, so I have rejiggered it. I’ve used the same figures, but instead of showing the amount of tax increase, I’ve shown the increase as a percentage of total income. This comes a bit closer to showing the true impact of the plan on the people in the various brackets. It doesn’t actually do that, of course, because a 10% hit on a total income of $10,000.00 is far more devastating than a like percentage hit on an income of $100,000.00, but it comes closer to showing the impact than merely showing absolute dollar amounts.
As you can see, Cain’s program is almost absolutely perfect given today’s prevailing memes. It doesn’t quite get there, because, the desperately poor are not hit quite as hard as the poor and nearly poor. But, if we adjust for the consideration I mentioned above, then I think that this graph proves to the discerning mind that the desperately poor are, in fact, taking the biggest hit of all. What more could you ask?
So Cain has a winner here. And make no mistake about it, if not-Romney happens to win, the not-Romney may be Cain by default, and the 9-9-9 plan may make it into law. There’s nothing the Republicans would like better than following a token black who wants them to screw the poor and middle class, with the added frisson of their actions having a disparate, negative impact on minorities.
But not everything is looking up for Cain, at least to all appearances. A new Super Pac has come into being called Americans For Herman Cain. Talking Points says the name may be illegal, as a Super Pac is not supposed to mention the candidate in the name. But there’s more to this than meets the eye, and it shows that there’s a downside to Citizens United even for the Republicans. Americans For Herman Cain is the brainchild of one Jordan Gehrke, who has made something of a living out of draining funds from the wallets of conservatives. He specialized, previously, in running direct mail campaigns for Republican long shots, preying on gullible right wingers throughout the land. The Republicans in question got a small sliver of the money, with Gehrke and affiliated scamsters pocketing the rest. His current scam seems clear. Start a Super Pac supporting some candidate, with a name as misleading as you can manage, implying that you are working on behalf of said candidate. Use a tiny percentage of the money to propagandize for the candidate, and pocket the rest. Though the article at Talking Points argues that the name of the Pac is illegal, my money’s on the courts holding that regulating the name would deny the organization’s free speech rights. In any event, probably no one will actually try to stop Gehrke, who will promptly soak up millions that might otherwise have actually gone to Cain. This, of course, will drain money away from the Cain campaign, but, given the distinct possibility that Cain isn’t really interested in winning, he may be in on the scam. In any event, it’s an interesting twist on Sarah’s scam of enriching herself through a self-promoting Pac.
