thinkprogress.org

Today, finally, Cain released the latest tweak of his plan — the creation of what he calls ‘opportunity zones.’ According to Cain, these will be special zones placed in inner-cities, and those who work or live in the zones will receive deductions from 999 (which otherwise wipes out all of the traditional tax deductions, including the Earned Income Tax credit, child deduction and the mortgage interest deduction). Evidently believing that all economic analysts are also mind readers, Cain said today that those who criticized his plan simply didn’t read it:

Now, the opportunity zone feature has been in our analysis all along. But just like I accused some of my opponents the other night of not having read the plan, we now have proof they didn’t read it. If their staffs had done the proper job and read it all the way through, they would have discovered what I’m about to share with you.

Cain, literally two days after admitting that this facet of his plan was secret, now claims that those criticizing his plan ‘didn’t read it.’ In Cain’s original 999 document there is indeed one line saying, ‘features a platform to launch properly structured Empowerment Zones to renew our inner cities.’ Shockingly enough, independent analysts didn’t work out that this meant a bunch of specific business deductions.

And, of course, there’s a catch — in order to qualify for zone status, a jurisdiction will have to abolish important worker protections like the minimum wage:

Cain hopes to encourage growth in impoverished areas by further lowering the tax burden of residents. But for a jurisdiction to qualify, it would have to adopt a number of conservative policies that may seem unpalatable to liberals, including eliminating the minimum wage, instituting school vouchers, and declaring the area ‘right-to-work’ – or non-union.

Cain, quite literally, only grants deductions to those who are willing to move into these inner city zones where his tax breaks magically apply, and in exchange they have to forego basic economic protections. Everyone else is out of luck.