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Suspend the payroll tax for a year, suspend the tax on repatriated corporate profits indefinitely and replace the income tax with a consumption tax, popularly known as the FairTax.
Mr. President, I had hoped that I could wait at least until the end of your first full year in office to break this bad news to you, but your latest pronouncement had me screaming at my TV, so I knew I had to tell you now.
In a Fox News interview on Nov. 17, 2009, with White House Correspondent Major Garrett, you said:
"There may be some tax provisions that can encourage businesses to hire sooner rather than sitting on the sidelines. So we're taking a look at those. I think it is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."
Sitting on the sidelines! Businesses don't sit on the sidelines or they would be out of business. Businesses are managing for survival as we pray that you and Congress will pass some real stimulus measures before we slip into an even deeper recession. Most businesses are hoping that the double-dip recession you hinted at will not turn into a triple-dip.
You have been advised to start mentioning some tax provisions to help stimulate the economy. Republicans in Congress and others suggested this before the $787 billion stimulus bill was passed and signed, but it fell on deaf ears. So you ended up with a bill for the government, of the government and by the government.
Here are three tax provisions that will work. Suspend the payroll tax for a year, suspend the tax on repatriated corporate profits indefinitely and replace the income tax with a consumption tax, popularly known as the FairTax. I know it's a long shot, but I'm just trying to offer some better advice than you have been getting.
You have also been advised to allude to the fact that we can't keep on spending this way. You're right! Your acknowledgment is welcomed, because that's a lot different from what you said in December 2008, namely, "deficits don't matter."
Most of us acknowledged that deficits do matter before the passage of the stimulus bill, but your chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said, "Don't let a good crisis go to waste."
You did not, and the stimulus is not working.
You also suggest that we are in the midst of an economic recovery. There is no recovery yet. The unemployment rate is now 10.2 percent and is expected to continue to rise. Remember, your advisers told you to say that it would not go above 8 percent with the passage of the stimulus bill. They also have you trying to peddle the "jobs saved and created" rhetoric, and most people are not buying it.
Businesses do not add jobs based on rhetoric and promises of tax provisions for businesses. They add jobs based on sustained economic recovery.
I wrote a commentary last July about the unmanageable executive structure you were creating by adding dozens of "czars" on top of the existing cabinet structure available to the president. I did not expect your staff to share that with you, nor did I even expect you to consider my analysis. But in my commentary I pointed out that, over time, this management structure will breed indecision.
Unfortunately, this structure is breeding indecision and inaccuracies, and highlighting some serious incompetence. Well-scripted speeches to try to make things sound better than they are have lost their luster. It certainly will not work for another three years of your presidency.
Mr. President, is it you or the people around you?
Herman Cain is currently a radio talk-show host. "The Herman Cain Show," News Talk 750 WSB-Atlanta, airs Monday-Friday, 7 p.m.-10 p.m. EST (listen LIVE online). He is a former corporate executive and CEO, and still serves on the board of directors of three corporations that range in size from 4 to 16 billion dollars in annual revenue. You can also hear and see "The Best of Herman Cain" anytime.
