Richard Lowrie, Local Wells Fargo Branch Employee, Crafted Herman Cain's '9-9-9' Tax Plan

WASHINGTON -- Herman Cain's now-famous "9-9-9" tax plan was crafted by a rank-and-file investment adviser working at a Wells Fargo branch in an affluent rural Ohio town with a population of about 6,000 people.

Cain name-checked Richard Lowrie during Tuesday night's Republican debate on economic policy, and his campaign confirmed to HuffPost that Richard Lowrie Jr., a Wells Fargo employee in Pepper Pike, Ohio, outside of Cleveland, was the official adviser to his campaign who hammered out the "9-9-9" plan. The plan calls for creating a new 9 percent federal sales tax on everything consumers buy, while cutting the corporate tax rate to 9 percent and imposing a flat 9 percent income tax on all wages.

Cain said on "Meet the Press" that his program is "revenue-neutral," meaning it will raise exactly the same amount of tax money as the current tax system. By cutting corporate taxes and taxes for the wealthy, the program puts a heavy new tax burden on the poor and the middle class.

It is unusual for a presidential campaign to employ a local investment adviser as an economic policy expert. Major electoral campaigns typically seek out high-profile economists with federal policymaking experience or academic gravitas.

According to Lowrie's LinkedIn profile, his education tops out with a Bachelor of Science in accountancy from Case Western University. He has no formal training in economics, and there is no indication that he has ever worked on public policy. According to that same profile, Lowrie's political experience includes working on the board of advisers for Americans For Prosperity, a hardline conservative outfit founded by the Koch Brothers, until 2008. In 2011, the group ran into trouble for posting fake eviction notices on the doors of Detroit families. Lowrie's LinkedIn profile also says he works on the volunteer advisory panel for the American Conservative Union.

Lowrie was not immediately available for comment.

Comments

[DYW]

10:23 PM on 11/05/2011

Did he get a toaster with that plan?

[Rollie]

04:01 PM on 10/16/2011

Folks should go to the Hermain Cain official web site about the 9-9-9 plan. Cains restructuring of the US Tax Code is accomplished in three steps: 1- Reduce the maximum existing tax to 27%; 2- Eliminate the entire current tax system and replace it with the 9-9-9 system; 3- Replace the 9-9-9 system with a Fair Tax.

The Fair Tax is a National consumption tax which is a national sales tax applied to all goods and services. The Fair Tax Act called for a 23% consumption tax that actually would equal a 30% tax rate. There are determined rebates but the bottom line is that the Fair Tax increases taxes on the lower and middle income and reduces taxes on the upper income since the lower/middle income spend almost all of their expendable income. What is inherent in the Fair Tax is that it is ADJUSTED automatically every year to account for budget shortfalls. Bad.

Note that in a Fair Tax(and likely Cain's 9% sales tax once he tells us the details), all new services would be taxed INCLUDING health care and apartment rental. This is just plain aggregious to people currently with homes foreclosed or the lower income.

[Rollie]

03:42 PM on 10/16/2011

I ran the numbers from my 2010 1040 and I would pay $2000 in additional taxes. I got my information from the Cain web site, under it's 999 subheading. However, when I went back there today, that site had changed it's wording under the 9% Fed Sales tax, and now it spews gobblygook that is impossible to understand.

I never thought I would ever agree with Michele Bachmann, but she was right - the devil is in the details - details which are hidden and changing.

[adclose]

12:52 PM on 10/16/2011

Seems that Mr. Cain is just the latest in flash-in-the-pan Repub candidates, as there is likely no way he will be taken seriously by most Repub voters. At least we can hope so.

The earlier comment about his similarity to Ross Perot is I think valid.

[donbrown]

06:39 AM on 10/14/2011

Lawrence O'Donnell has the best evisceration of the "plan" on his show Thursday with a clip showing a rather simple question from a reporter about taxing Apple Computer largely mad from foreign parts.

Cain's response: "I have NO idea..."

I predict Cain becomes the next GOP Icarus in short order -- following Trump, Bachmann, and Perry in quick SURGE...CRASH...BURN succession.

[efreilly]

09:05 AM on 10/14/2011

That should make for a nice 30 second spot to just run over and over and over and over...

"What would you do about _____ ?"
"I have NO idea."
"I have NO idea."
"I have NO idea."
"I have NO idea."
"I have NO idea."
"I have NO idea."
.

[gzuckier]

03:40 PM on 10/15/2011

Well, that's the long form of the 9 9 9 plan.

Do you have a plan for ___?
Nein, ich habe keine Ahnung,
Nein, ich habe keine Ahnung,
Nein, ich habe keine Ahnung,

[jrmarsh]

06:39 PM on 10/14/2011

I nearly choked I was laughing so hard when he was asked that question and say emphatically: "I have ABSOLUTELY NO idea"

[TRex1945]

04:54 AM on 10/14/2011

You have to be kidding, some local stockbroker with ties to conservative causes is Herman Cain's economic expert? Herman Cain himself cannot answer questions about the details (e.g. what is gross income). If you look at the Cain website, the 9-9-9 plan is just a stepping stone to the so-called Fair Tax. There is nothing fair about the Fair Tax. It is simply a massive shift in the tax burden from the top to the bottom.

[southcst1]

09:03 PM on 10/13/2011

Republicans are smart enough to see through an amateur crafted plan like this once the details surface. Cain won't win any GOP nominations on "9-9-9" like Obama won on "Hope & Change".

[nomobull]

04:02 AM on 10/14/2011

the only thing these two things share is they run/ran up against reality. 999 will be revealed in reality that it's just another give away to the rich at the expense of the middle class, and 'hope and change' ran into the reality of the mess Bush left behind and the obstructionism of a republican party, a media more interested in opinion than facts. add some progressives who behaved as if they alone got him elected. and why couldn't/wouldn't he do things their way..

[gzuckier]

03:41 PM on 10/15/2011

"Republican­s are smart enough to see through an amateur crafted plan like this once the details surface."

Yeah, it's not as brilliantly insightful as trickle down economics or the Laffer Curve.

[rm10011]

08:48 PM on 10/13/2011

.......Hagen Daz Rocky Road!

[cavkchas]

06:56 PM on 10/13/2011

I am not at all surprised at this revelation. Herman Cain is totally in "la la land" if he thinks that a 9% national sales tax on top of the state and local sales taxes already in place, will not hit the middle and poor class extremely hard. I would say this will finish off quite a few who are barely making it now. This is totally stupid. To cut corporate tax rates to 9% is even more stupid. I suggest that Mr. Cain and his "economic advisor" just give corporate America the deeds and front door keys to the White House and all other government owned real estate and be done with it.

[webwzrd]

03:43 PM on 10/13/2011

So, the Bloomberg and Tax Policy Center analysts who studied this plan and concluded it would cause the worse deficits since WWII while placing a HUGE burden on the poor and middle class, are wrong according to Cain and a branch accountant for Walls Fargo?

Looks to me like another "I don't have any facts to support this" argument.

[kdp59]

04:38 PM on 10/13/2011

"we'll just have to agree to disagree on that...next question please"!

Herm.

(or Herb as sister Sarah calls him).

[cavkchas]

06:58 PM on 10/13/2011

Believing in "Herb" because he is your brother (or whatever), is indicative of another american wannabee who is way out on a limb without any hope of surviving.

[webwzrd]

11:22 PM on 10/13/2011

I don't agree.

[zenbamboo]

03:18 PM on 10/13/2011

I agreed with Romney's retort to Cain the other night at the debate. A complex problem cannot be solved with a simple answer. Our tax code is a mess, but something like this is not likely to ever make it through Congress. There are campaign fantasy promises and then there is reality.

[efreilly]

09:11 AM on 10/14/2011

It absolutely WOULD make it through the current House of Representatives, which is scary in and of itself. If Democrats lose the Senate, Obama better get his veto pen(s) ready. If Obama loses, God help us. What is going on with Republican politics in Washington is so out-of-touch with American society that I wouldn't put it past them to pass such a laughable, simplistic, mess as 9-9-9.

Growing up, I never understood how something like Prohibition could make it through the checks and balances and actually become law. I get it now.

If somehow this Republican agenda makes it into law, I only hope that it won't take the same 14 years of pain, torture, and agony before we have the political will to match our common sense and get it repealed.

[bluenational]

03:14 PM on 10/13/2011

A flat tax does not redistribute wealth. In fact, the wealthy would pay even less because this generally is the corporate ownership class. Under 9-9-9 wealth could be easily hidden by enormous growth of new corporations.

[zenbamboo]

03:22 PM on 10/13/2011

That is probably the biggest fly in the ointment with this plan. Ireland was charging 11% corp tax and their economy is one of the worst in all of Europe.

[zenbamboo]

03:11 PM on 10/13/2011

Cain squirmed when pressure was applied to name his financial advisers who came up with this. Face it, Cain is just flying by the seat of his pants, making things up as he goes along. I am sure he never expected the response he has gotten. He doesn't even really have a campaign. When all of the other candidates were in NH the other day, he was on a book signing tour in Pennsylvania. Face it he just wanted some publicity and he wasn't prepared for anybody to take him seriously. And each day that ticks by he starts to behave very much like Ross Perot when he is interviewed. He is a shoot from the hip kind of guy and this is going to be entertaining to watch unfold.

[mbn2010]

02:07 PM on 10/13/2011

I don't think there's an emoticon available to me that can adequately capture the look of surprise? awe? shock? disturbed? incredulity? bafflement? on my face. Heck... I can't even come up with a word that matches the look on my face.

Richard Lowrie????!!!!!! A guy who works in a bank? Or perhaps he's a guy who makes cold-calls to us late at night, or at dinner time, so he can get a meeting with us. HE'S the brains behind Cain's 9-9-9 pile of manure?

And Cain is atop the polls for the Republican nomination in the race for President of the United States?

OMG, we live in strange times. Perhaps we'll survive them.

[odp]

03:12 PM on 10/13/2011

(facepalm), (headdesk), or maybe Calvin's (of Calvin & Hobbes) frozen face? Strange times, indeed.

[jeniferdaniels]

01:38 PM on 10/13/2011

pray for America.