Herman Cain Will Release Medical Records
That’s what the Republican presidential contender told me this morning when I asked Herman Cain, a cancer survivor, if he would release the records in order to reassure voters.
“I’m willing to release my medical records. Two months ago George, I went to my oncologist in Atlanta, got a full scale check-up, cat scan, x-rays, all of the various blood tests and he put it in writing that after five years I am now totally 100 percent cancer-free,” Herman Cain said.
He was diagnosed in 2006 and wrote in his book “This is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House,” that he was given a 30 percent chance of survival. But Cain overcame stage four liver cancer and said his doctors call him a “cancer miracle.”
I spoke to him the day after news broke of Iran’s alleged terror plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. I asked him how “President Cain” would respond to this news.
“I would like to see all the intelligence information. I would like to do a complete analysis with all the advisors so we can make a reformed responsible decision as to what our next move should be,” he said. “We need to do something. But George I’m not going to make a decision just based on news reports. I would gather all my advisors, all my intelligence sources.”
Cain said his foreign policy philosophy – which builds on former President Reagan’s beliefs – is “peace thru strength and clarity” and would have helped prevent this situation.
“We need to clarify who our friends are, clarify who our enemies our, stop giving money to our enemies and then let the rest of the world know who our friends are that we are going to stand by,” he said. “This is one of the reasons this Iranian situation popped up. Because it’s not clear to a lot of people in the world under this administration who we are going to stand with.”
The founder of Godfather’s pizza, who is gaining strength in the polls - was fresh off a debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH where his fellow Republicans criticized his “9-9-9? plan that lowers the corporate tax rate to 9 percent, installs a 9 percent flat tax instead of the brackets and a 9 percent national sales tax.
Analysts claim his plan would add up to a tax cut for the wealthy and an increase for the poor and middle class. I asked Cain if he would revise his economic plan if the analysts are correct.
“George, no, because they’re wrong George, I’m sorry. Allow me to give at least one example. See these independent analysts are making this analysis based upon their set of assumptions and not the assumptions we use to develop the plan. We would be happy to share those assumptions, but they won’t call and ask ‘What are your assumptions?’ he said.
“Every worker pays 15.3 percent payroll tax. That goes to 9 percent. That is a six percentage point deduction right there. Then all they have to do is pay the sales tax on that, with that third 9. So you got a six percentage point pick up, and what people don’t say is that for the sales tax you don’t pay the sales tax on used goods. It levels the playing field. And so the mischaracterization is that they are using the assumptions from the old tax code, and that’s simply does not work in 9-9-9,” he said.
