(Image Source: Wikipedia Commons / Gage Skidmore)

BY ERIK SHUTE
ANCHOR JONAH JAVAD
 

You're watching multisource political video news analysis from Newsy
 

Down a ‘9’, but not out. On Friday, GOP Candidate Hermain Cain announced he’s dropping the middle 9 of his 9-9-9 plan as an exemption for the poor. Now, reactions from the political field focus on the details -- or lack there of, in Cain’s triple digit deal.

CNBC was there to hear Cain’s announcement set against the backdrop of a depressed Detroit neighborhood.

“If you're at or below the poverty level, your plan isn't 9-9-9, it's 9-0-9. Say amen, y'all? 9-0-9.”

“What people loved about 9-9-9 was the simplicity. Now that you start having exceptions and here are different ways in which it can be nuanced it will end up land which is, okay, create some exemptions and then you get more when someone else lobbies... "
 

Analysts on CNN came to a different conclusion. Cain’s plan is starting a much needed conversation -- and he should be prepared to defend it down to the details.

GERGEN: “This is the most important pledge he's making... we need other studies of this plan to determine what the real effects are, otherwise you're buying a pig in the poke.”
AVLON: “This is a problem with bumper sticker policy, the devil is in the details, when rhetoric meets the real world... Some of the clarifications today made it less regressive and he almost put forth a pro-growth, anti-poverty agenda, but there are not a lot of details.”
 

The Washington Post spoke with Roberton Williams, a senior fellow of the Tax Policy Center which approved Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. He concludes if you take 9-9-9 an add ‘0’, what changed?

“‘Those folks are still going to be left with a sales tax...’ So even with the ‘9-0-9’ tweaks, ‘you still have the fact that poor people will bear a higher tax liability, and rich people will bear a much, much lower one.’”

We’ll finish up with a clip from CNN a few months ago, when Cain started promoting his plan - no exceptions.

CROWLEY: “Is there any exception, as you see it, in this consumption tax? Would you -- except for clothing perhaps? Except for food? Would food be a consumption?”
CAIN: No, you don't have to do that.
CROWLEY: No exemptions to the sales tax.
CAIN: No, you don't need those exemptions. No, you don't need those exemptions.
CROWLEY: So a person poor person is paying the same amount of tax on groceries as I am.
CAIN: “Right.”
 

9-9-9 is down a 9, but Cain is still up in the polls. The latest numbers show Cain pulling away in Iowa gaining 37% of caucus votes.