ThinkProgress caught up with possible Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain at a Tea Party Tax Day rally in Orlando, Florida to ask him how he felt about various corporations dodging their taxes entirely, and Mister Cain's response was that he would like to see corporate taxes simply eliminated.
I guess you can't be accused of cheating the system for dodging all of your taxes if those taxes no longer exist.
KEYES: You mentioned about the, here on tax day, the corporate tax rate, that you’d like to see it reduced from 35 percent to 25 percent. But a lot of these corporations like GE are paying nothing in taxes currently.
CAIN: You’re mixing the issues, young man. Let me tell you something. People who pick out a company that spends zero, they’re not looking at the big picture. They’re not looking at the big picture. [Crosstalk] Secondly, taxes paid by corporations get passed on to consumers.
KEYES: So would you like to see no taxes on corporations?
CAIN: I would like to see no taxes on corporations. That’s why I favor the Fair Tax. That would be fair to consumers. That’s why I would like to see that.
KEYES: Do you think it’s fair though that they’re taking advantage of some of these loopholes?
CAIN: Now, let me tell you. They didn’t write these loopholes. So the fact that they’re using these “loopholes,” as you’re calling it, they’re just doing what the loopholes are. Change the loopholes by eliminating the tax code and replacing it with the Fair Tax and there would be no loopholes.
Oh, I see. They didn't create the loopholes, they simply hired lobbyists to do that for them. They're just doing their patriotic duty of abusing them. It's just a creative use of the mechanics, not an exploit. Right.
At this point, it's not shocking when a Republican says something as ridiculous as this, but it is shocking to me that they still manage to find supporters. And how many of those supporters would be the ones suffering under a "Fair Tax?" My best guess is most of them.