999

Will Herman Cain's 999 tax plan work? That's a 9% income tax, a 9% Corporate income tax and a 9% national sales tax. How much money would we raise with 999? Would it pay Uncle Sam's bills?
Just for fun, I did a little surfing and got to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. There I find that total US income is $12.8 trillion. So 9% of that is $1.152 trillion
Corporate Profits before taxes is $1.8 trillion So 9% of that is a measly $0.162 trillion.
National sales is not given, so let's guess that one half of people's income gets spent on taxable stuff. That's fair, rent and mortgage payments suck up about half of most folks income and they aren't taxable. So let's estimate the 9% sales tax brings 9% of half of total income. That's %0.576 trillion.

Add it up. $1.152 + $0.162 + $0.576 = $1.89 trillion raised by the 999 tax plan.

Is this enough? No.

Current US govt expenditures are $5.4 trillion. Of that $1.3 trillion is borrowed.
Under 999 we would have to borrow $3.51 trillion to add to the $1.89 trillion of 999 tax revenues to raise the $5.4 trillion we are spending.

Even an 18-18-18 tax plan wouldn't be enough to cover today's federal spending.