Rick Smith, CR Gazette –
CEDAR RAPIDS — One-time Godfather’s Pizza executive and unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is back with his numbers, this time it’s 30-30-3.
Cain came to Cedar Rapids on Wednesday with what he’s calling The Truth Tour — 30 days, 30 cities, three events a day — to promote the economic facts he says are important about America today, facts that he says will help defeat President Barack Obama in November.
“I’m still on a mission, and my mission, in all honesty, is to defeat Barack Obama,” Cain told a welcoming luncheon gathering of about 60 people at The Marriott in Cedar Rapids. “I make no bones about it.
“And the reason is quite simply because of the increase in regulations, because of the uncertainty this environment has, because this economy is not turning around.”
Among the items which gained Cain some notoriety as a presidential candidate was his 9-9-9 tax plan: a 9 percent income tax, 9-percent federal sales tax and 9-percent business transaction tax.
A radio commentator who daily authors a piece called “We are not Stupid,” Cain said the American economy under Obama’s leadership is “one of most struggling economies in the world.”
His 20-minute talk did not mention Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, until the end, when he noted that he had told Romney that he wasn’t looking for a job in Romney’s administration.
Cain said facts mattered, not “the war of words,” and the facts he singled out were those on unemployment, the national debt, economic growth and unfunded liabilities of the current programs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He also quoted an unnamed study that he said found 43 percent of voters 30 years of age and under thought socialism was “cool.” What will scare you if that doesn’t? he said.
Cain said his Truth Tour was aimed at business people, and he encouraged those in the audience to talk to their employees about the “facts” even though he said the Internal Revenue Service has “intimidated businesses” in the past not to talk to employees about “information.”
“But we’re past that point now folks,” Cain said. “It’s not risky because there’s a way to do it. You make it non-partisan, non-political, just share people the facts and they’ll make up their mind ….”
Cain dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the face of accusations of past sexual misconduct, accusations which included a long-term extramarital affair and allegations of sexual harassment.
Cain told Wednesday’s audience that the allegations were “lies, distortions and more lies.”
The Truth Tour is sponsored by Job Creators Solutions, an organization formed by Cain and Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of The Home Depot, Cain said.
