The Tax Attorney

Michelle Bachmann never goes through a debate without telling us that she is a tax attorney (and that she raised 5 biological children and 23 foster children and, well you get the picture.) Last night was no different. The twist last night was that Bachmann told us of her background at the same time that she was discussing the issue of taxes, specifically Cain's 9-9-9 plan. Interestingly enough, Bachmann seemed to get nearly every point wrong in her discussion of Cain's plan. Do not misunderstand me, I am not endorsing Cain or his plan. I am simply pointing out that Bachmann did not seem to understand simple issues of tax law despite her oft-touted background as a "tax attorney". Here is an example: Bachmann kept saying that the Cain corporate tax was a value added tax. She explained that each company that made a component of a final product would be taxed on its profits and that made the Cain tax a "value added" tax. All that Bachmann did with this charge was to reveal that she does not understand the current tax system. Under current law, each company that makes a component of a final product is taxed on its profits. That's right, the current corporate income tax does exactly what Bachmann claimed was the reason for calling Cain's tax a value added tax.

This may not seem like much, but to me it is very telling. Bachmann was throwing around charges against the Cain plan that were, like most of the ones raised last night, misguided or incorrect. Bachmann, however, did not just misunderstand the Cain plan; she made clear that she does not understand the current corporate tax structure. If, as a tax attorney, Bachmann does not understand the basic nature of the tax code, it is hard to imaging how she could ever be competent enough to be president of the United States. We have already seen what we get with incompetent leadership. Three years of Obama has made that clear. It would be sad indeed to replace one incompetent with another one.