Washington, Oct 22: The latest Republican presidential contender to surge in the polls, businessman Herman Cain, found himself scrambling Friday to revise the tax reform plan that he made the centerpiece of his unlikely campaign to unseat President Barack Obama.
Cain has seen a meteoric rise in the polls in recent weeks as Republican voters have moved from one candidate to another, looking for a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor is viewed warily because of his shifting positions on gay and abortion rights and support for a health care reform plan in his state similar to that introduced by Obama.
Stumbles, however, have plagued Cain in recent days. He initially said he would negotiate for the release of U.S. prisoners from terrorists, then reversed himself. Unclear comments on abortion forced another clarification. And then he seemed to undercut his signature tax plan.
Up to now, Cain has touted his “9-9-9” plan to scrap the current taxes on income, payroll, capital gains and corporate profits and replace them with a 9 percent tax on income, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. The simplified plan appealed to anti-tax Republicans who want to overhaul the voluminous federal tax code.
But Cain's plan now seems to be unraveling after an independent analysis showed his tax plan would raise taxes on 84 percent of U.S. households. The Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, said low- and middle-income families would be hit hardest, while households with the highest incomes would get big tax cuts.
After sharp criticism over his one-size-fits-all plan from Republicans and Democrats alike, Cain proposed no income taxes for Americans living at or below the poverty line. He also proposed exemptions for businesses investing in “opportunity zones” as a way to give an economic jolt to rundown neighborhoods such as the one he visited Friday in hard-hit Detroit.
“It never felt so good being shot at,” Cain laughed as he outlined new details of his tax plan.
The former pizza chain CEO insisted he had not changed positions, though.
“We simply chose not to talk about this piece earlier,” he told reporters. “We didn't want to put it all out there at once.”
Cain's prospects suffered another jolt Thursday when he was forced to clarify his position on abortion a day after saying in a CNN television interview that he opposed the procedure but didn't believe the government or other people should have a role in the decision to terminate a pregnancy.
Cain issued the statement after a rival Republican contender, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, accused him of holding a view common to supporters of abortion rights and said Cain was not a true conservative.
In his statement, Cain said he had misunderstood the question being asked on CNN and declared that he is “100 percent” opposed to abortion and would do everything he could as president “to advance the culture of life.”
But Cain's abortion remarks may hurt him with Christian conservatives who believe the government should protect the life of the unborn. They are particularly influential in the Midwestern state of Iowa whose Jan. 3 caucuses officially open the Republican nominating season.
Perry, struggling to get his campaign back on track, has been particularly aggressive in going after Romney in recent debates and plans to unveil a major tax overhaul plan next week that he promised will be “flatter and fairer” than Cain's.
Perry supports a flat income tax rate designed to simplify the federal tax code by having everyone pay the same percentage regardless of income, said a key adviser, Steve Forbes, a wealthy businessman. Forbes said Perry's plan will differ from Cain's because it will not call for a national sales tax.
But liberal groups quickly criticized Perry's idea, saying it would also raise taxes on lower- and middle-income Americans while giving breaks to the wealthiest by eliminating the progressive nature of the current tax code.
The rest of the Republican field is hoping that Cain's stumbles might open the way for one of them to challenge Romney. They include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, libertarian-leaning Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Rep. Michelle Bachmann.
On Friday, as many as five Bachmann's staffers in the key primary state of New Hampshire formally left her campaign this week, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said.
Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart disputed reports of a staff shakeup. Still, Stewart said that she hadn't been able to reach the top New Hampshire staff to confirm they were still on board. She said she had reached some junior staffers who didn't say they were leaving.
Campaign finance reports show that Bachmann, who has fallen in polls and struggled to raise money, had five paid staff in New Hampshire as recently as late September.
