The Hill News

Vice President Biden said Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan continues the GOP philosophy of looking out for the wealthiest Americans while hurting the middle class.

“That’s standing on its head what Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, had in mind when he proposed a national income tax that would be progressive,” Biden said on ABC’s "Good Morning America" Wednesday. “But it’s totally consistent with the Republican philosophy that what you continue to do is continue to cut taxes for the millionaires and billionaires and continue to add a burden to the middle class.”

Biden also tied the plan to the deregulation of Wall Street, which he says led to the current economic conditions.

“The fact of the matter is I hear them talking about liberating the economy,” Biden said. “The last time we talked about liberating the economy the last eight years put the middle class in chains, and all these guys talk about is deregulation â€" deregula! te Wall Street again â€" my Lord, how many times do we have to go back to that horror movie? Deregulating everything doesn’t do anything about taxes on millionaires and billionaires, and continues the tax burden on small income and middle class people. I just think it’s more of the same.”

Cain’s proposal would replace the tax code with a nine-percent corporate income tax rate, a nine-percent income tax rate and a nine-percent national sales tax. It was attacked by almost all of the candidates at Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, but Cain defended the plan again on Wednesday, telling ABC that independent analysts are wrong to say it would be a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, would increase the tax burden for the poor, and would increase the national deficit.

“These independent analysts are making an analysis based on their set of assumptions, not the assumptions we used to develop the plan,” he said. “We’d be happy to sha! re the assumptions but they won’t call and ask.”

Still, criticism from the White House seems to legitimize Cain’s surging presidential campaign. Some recent polls have Cain running second only to Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, and the 9-9-9 plan was the focus of Tuesday’s debate.