White House spokesman Josh Earnest Friday said Friday that the Republican debate was so light on policy that it made him long for the days of 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain and his “9-9-9” tax plan.
“You know, I never thought I’d pine for the days of Herman Cain, but at least he had a 9-9-9 plan,” Earnest told reporters during his daily briefing. “It was outrageous, but at least he had an affirmative governing proposal and agenda. I didn’t hear anybody with even a semblance of a 9-9-9 plan.”
“I mean, next to all these guys who were on stage last night, Herman Cain looks like a policy wonk,” he added.
Cain’s plan called for a national sales tax, a business tax, and an individual flat rate, all at 9 percent.
Earnest was responding to a question about the avalanche of GOP criticism of the president’s foreign policy during the debate. He dismissed its premise simply by calling the stream of GOP blasts over Obama’s handling of national security issues as “overheated rhetoric” without “the facts to substantiate it.”
Earnest went on to cite the president’s hard work on expanding opportunity for the middle-class, which he said is “going to make America safer around the world,” as well as the compromise deals Obama managed to reach with Republicans on Capitol Hill late last year. That includes legislation reforming the No Child Left Behind education law, the five-year transportation bill, and a budget deal that funds “our national security priorities $50 billion over the sequester levels.”
“So the president has an affirmative agenda, and we are actually having success in advancing it, despite the kind of opposition we see from the Republicans who are actually in the majority of both houses of Congress,” he said. “That’s what leadership is and that’s what the American people expect out of their president and we didn’t see anything close to that on the stage last night.”
Earnest also briefly waded into the heated debate between Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about Cruz’s criticism of Trump’s New York attitude. Trump this week and during the debate defended New York values and determination, referring to how the city came together to rebuild after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Look, there’s no denying that people all across the country around the world were inspired by the response of the people of New York City in the aftermath of 9/11,” he said. “There’s no denying that.”
