Herman Cain, fiercely criticized by his fellow GOP presidential candidates during Tuesday night's debate for his economic plan, said he plans to "throw it back" to his rivals in the next debate and ask for proof his 9-9-9 plan doesn't work.
Speaking on CNN’s American Morning on Wednesday, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO dismissed the barrage of criticism from the debate, saying it was "quite an honor to be beat up on when you have a good idea" and that other candidates "spent more time talking about what’s wrong with my plan than they did talking about their plan."
"That suggests they don’t really have a convincing plan," Cain said. Next time, Cain said he plans to “go on the attack,” and ask his Republican rivals to “show me your analysis that proves my plan won’t work.”
Cain, who fell short in the debate, said on Wednesday night that he’s “been trying” to be the nice guy in the debates. “But they’re getting on my last nerve,” he said.
During the debate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum referred to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that found 84 percent of Americans would see a tax hike under Cain's plan. To this, Cain said on Wednesday, “Here’s how I know they didn’t even read our analysis: We have a provision in there… for people that are on earned income tax credits and for cities we are going to declare as opportunity zones. We’ve got some headroom in there for them. Several trillion dollars, by the way.”
Could he be vice president to one of his rivals? While Cain said he’s “in it to win it” for the presidential race, he also said he would consider becoming someone’s No. 2.
“It would depend upon who it is, and it would depend upon the understanding that we could reach about how they saw my role,” he said. “I’m not saying no but it’s not an automatic yes.”
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