Herman Cain's 999 Plan: Will It Work? Experts Speak Out

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Side I: Good Economic Policy

Support for the 9-9-9 plan focuses less on how it will affect the distribution of wealth, and more on how it will affect the economy as a whole. On a macroeconomic scale, Cain argues, the plan has tremendous potential to strengthen the economy and create jobs, because it would lower taxes on businesses, giving them an incentive to start hiring.

Daniel Mitchell, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the principles of Cain's plan were solid. "As a matter of economic policy, it's a very good idea: lower marginal tax rates, less double taxation on savings and investments, and elimination of corrupt and inefficient loopholes," he told IBTimes. "Those are all things that public finance economists have long recognized are important."

The 9-9-9 plan has drawbacks "relative to an ideal tax system," but "relative to our current system, you'd have to say on balance it's much better," Will McBride, an economist for The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, said. "It reduces taxes on saving and investment, and that's where economic growth comes from, basically. That is its primary benefit, and then, of course, it simplifies the tax code tremendously."

Supporters of the plan have addressed some of the main criticisms of it, such as the fear -- raised most recently by Michele Bachmann at Tuesday's debate -- that future presidents would inevitably raise the nine percent rate, creating, for example, a 15-15-15 plan.

"It's certainly a risk, but that's the history of taxation," McBride said. "Sure, there's always going to be that pressure with any tax, but we have to compare to the current system, and it's a big improvement over the current system. It's a big reduction in the top tax rate and a flat tax on personal and corporate income. Those are very good things for long-term growth. Even if we eventually push the rate up to 15 percent, that's a drastic decrease from the current system," in which the corporate tax -- though not personal income tax -- is 35 percent.

And, in response to Mitt Romney's jab at Tuesday's debate that the 9-9-9 plan oversimplified the complex task of fixing the economy, Mitchell said, "I think the plan is strong because of its simplicity." There is more to fixing the economy than tax reform, of course, but "one of the reasons I think Cain is attracting so much support is because he's willing to come up with a bold plan," he said.

Kevin Hassett, the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, agreed. "This is a far more sophisticated plan than one might have expected, given that he is not a person that has been inside politics his whole life," Hassett told USA Today. "The Cain plan is really solid. The only criticism one could make is it's too bold or something like that."

Side II: Bad Economic Policy