Herman Cain’s campaign overshadowed by allegations of impropriety

Herman Cain, Republican presidential candidate and former businessman, CEO and radio show host, is facing yet another charge of impropriety, this time from an Atlanta businesswoman who claimed she had a 13-year affair with the former pizza company chief executive. The woman, Ginger White, said that she had been aware at the time Mr. Cain was married and that their relationship was “inappropriate.”

Ms. White said Mr. Cain ended sexual relations with her eight months ago, when he began his run for the Republican nomination.

According to reports, Ms. White produced mobile phone bills showing what she said was Cain’s number. She said he had called her dozens of times over a period of several months. According to her, she decided to go public with her allegations after receiving calls from journalists, and she was bothered by the way Mr. Cain had “demonised” other women who had accused him of sexual harassment.

This surely must end what has been, until lately, an entertaining political campaign. According to Robert Costa at the National Review, “Herman Cain told his senior staff that he is ‘reassessing’ whether to remain in the race. He will make his final decision ‘over the next several days’.”

Mr. Cain is reported to have denied the “charges unequivocally.” He said, he had known “this lady” for “a number of years.” And that he’d “been attempting to help her financially because she was out of work and destitute, desperate.”

I believe, sadly, this candidate’s time in the sun is at an end. Even in these everything-goes days, marriage fidelity is expected, demanded, of a man who aspires to be the president. 

© Russell G. Campbell, 2011

Politico Playback …smile

Rick Perry says he’ll “Cut, Balance and Grow”

Republican candidate for the 2012 U.S. presidential nomination, Gov. Rick Perry today promises to “unleash job creation, address the current economic crisis, while at the same time generating a stable source of revenue to address our record deficit and put our fiscal house in order.”

The governor of Texas made the pledge while rolling out a broad economic plan, which he’s dubbed, “Cut, Balance and Grow.” It’s built around the option for Americans to pay a flat 20 per cent income tax rate, and is considered to be a critical element of his strategy to regain front-runner status for his struggling campaign, and to answer the threat of Herman Cain’s proposed “9-9-9 plan.”

Mr. Perry’s proposed flat tax would preserve key tax exemptions for families earning less than $500,000 a year and would increase the standard deduction to $12,500 for individuals, while also eliminating tax paid on the country’s largest estates upon the death of the properties’ owners.

The governor would eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits and allow young workers to invest part of their payroll taxes into private accounts. He also called for corporate tax reform, including a one-time reduced tax rate of 5.25 percent for businesses that bring home their profits that are “parked” overseas.

Gov. Perry said:

The flat tax will unleash growth but growth's not enough. We must put a stop to this entitlement culture that risks the financial solvency of this country for future generations. I mean the red flags are alarming.

[…]

The U.S. Chamber [of Commerce] estimates this one-time tax reduction would bring more than $1 trillion in capital back to the U.S. create up to 2.9 million jobs, and increase economic output by $360 billion.

As expected, President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has already launched its counterattack, saying Gov. Perry’s tax plan seems guided by the principle of shifting the tax burden from large corporations “onto the backs of the middle class.” No surprise there.

Flat-tax seems to be the flavour of the month among Republicans. We’ll have to wait to see how this latest effort stands up to the barrage of criticism it’s sure to receive in the coming days.

 

 

© Russell G. Campbell, 2011.
All rights reserved.
 
The views I express on this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or posi­tions of political parties, institutions or organi­zations with which I am associated.

Will Obama’s declaration that America’s war in Iraq will end in 2011 help his re-election prospects?

During his run for president of the United States, Barack Obama pledged “to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end.” Friday, the president confirmed his promise with an announcement that he will pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of this year. This fulfills one of the terms of the Status of Forces Agreement (SFA) with Iraq.

Over 4,400 American military lives have been lost since the Iraq war started in 2003, and the war has already cost the Americans over $806-billion.

According to the Huffington Post, there were reports the administration was looking for ways to renegotiate the SFA with the Iraqi government so as to prolong U.S. presence in that country. Such reports were troubling to many who had supported the Democrats in 2008—at least in part—because of Obama’s pledge to end the war.

Apparently, Americans and the Iraqis wanted to keep up to about 10,000 U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the Dec. 31 deadline, despite their public protestations to the contrary. Negotiations were prompted by: (a) the Iraqis’ hope for more help in providing internal stability; and (b) the Americans’ fear of further encroachment by Iran. But the Iraq government faced opposition to the idea from Shia groups and Iraqi nationalists, and discussions over the precise number of and legal immunity for troops that would stay behind were stumbling blocks in the negotiations.

Of the 41,000 troops the Americans now have stationed in Iraq, only 4,000 to 5,000 security contractors will remain in the country after Dec. 31. This would end an occupation that, at its height in 2006, saw some 170,000 U.S. soldiers in that country.

The cost in American lives and treasure has been high, with over 4,400 American military lives having been lost since the war started in March, 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush launched the U.S.’s “Shock And Awe” invasion of Iraq. More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have also been killed.  And, according to a study by Amy Belasco, Specialist in U.S. Defense Policy and Budget, released last March, the war had already cost the Americans $806-billion.

Many pundits are convinced President Obama would not have been elected president had it not been for the Iraq War. His victory in the presidential primary elections was owed in no small part to support from his party’s antiwar wing—Hillary Clinton had become tainted by her vote for the invasion and he campaigned to bring the troops home. Now the debate will be over whether the president’s announcement will help him in next year’s election.

The Iraq promise kept and recent foreign policy victories—bin Laden’s and Gaddafi’s deaths—will no doubt play a role in the 2012 election; however, with the American economy in such poor shape and without much hope it will improve over the next 12 months, voters are likely to remember Bill Clinton’s now famous phrase, “It’s the economy stupid,” which seemed to resonate so well with them during his successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H. W. Bush.

I agree with Glen Bolger—a Republican pollster whose firm is working for former governor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign—who said, “The election is much more about Americans losing their jobs than about Gaddafi losing his head.” And I’d say much the same about the president’s latest Iraq announcement.

 

 

© Russell G. Campbell, 2011.
All rights reserved.
 
The views I express on this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or posi­tions of political parties, institutions or organi­zations with which I am associated.

Bring on the flat tax!

 Republican presidential candidates, businessman Herman Cain and
Gov. Rick Perry | Photo: Justin Sullivan/GettyImages

[This entry was published previously on Postmedia Network’s The Real Agenda blog.]

The 9-9-9 tax plan being proposed by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is beginning  to take heavy fire from other presidential hopefuls and analysts alike. Some  claim Mr. Cain’s plan would shift the tax burden in the United States, raising  taxes on the poor while cutting taxes for the rich—hardly the narrative Mr. Cain wants to hear.

The 9-9-9 tax plan has resonated with Republicans and has helped  propel the former Godfathers pizza CEO onto the top rung of leading contenders  for the Republican nomination. His quick rise in polls, though, has meant Mr.  Cain’s plan is receiving more scrutiny.

Mr. Cain would replace the current federal tax code in its  entirety with a flat 9% personal income tax, a 9% corporate income tax, and a  9% tax on sales of new products. He would also eliminate the payroll taxes for  Medicare and Social Security, along with estate and capital gains taxes. And,  in a second phase, Mr. Cain would eliminate all federal income taxes  for individuals and for corporations and replace them with a national sales  tax—Herman Cain, however, hasn’t yet offered an estimate of the sales tax  rate that would be necessary to raise sufficient money to fund the federal  government.

I spent years as an accountant with responsibility for a  corporation’s taxes and remember well the bookcase full of material I referred  to daily. Like that of the United States, the Canadian tax structure is  bewildering in its complexity. And, while Mr. Cain’s campaign hasn’t  offered nearly enough specifics for anyone to do a thorough analysis of  his 9-9-9 plan, I welcome the fact that the idea of a simple flat tax is  now on the table for open debate.

I am encouraged also by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas saying recently  that he too will propose a flat tax as part of a tax overhaul  program.

According to The New York Times, “He [Perry] has in the  past suggested support for some form of a flat tax, but has backed off from  endorsing one. Mr. Perry recently recruited as an adviser Steve Forbes, who  ran for president in 1996 on a pledge of implementing a single flat tax on  income, without any deductions.”

On Wednesday past, Gov. Perry gave us the broad  outlines of his tax plan that he said will feature spending cuts, entitlement  reform and a flat tax. And he promised then to provide specifics in six days. 

Should a flat tax be successful in the United States, we could  expect to see one here in Canada within a decade. Imagine: no need for a  tax accountant or expensive tax software, no complicated forms, few itemized  list of deductions, credits or other “loopholes”. And no estate tax, no  capital gains tax and no dividends tax.

I can hardly wait.

 

 

Except photograph, © Russell G. Campbell, 2011.

The views I express on this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or posi­tions of political parties, institutions or organi­za­tions with which I am associated.