As our resident Herman Cain tracker – I figured I’d bring up these two interesting articles regarding Herman Cain. The first is an article from The Atlantic which reposts, with permission, Herman Cain’s article from 1994 following his debate with Bill Clinton over health care. It specifically includes the math he referenced and details about the increased cost Clinton’s health care proposal would add to his business. Here’s an excerpt:

Under your proposed health care plan, the cost to cover all 3,418 employees would be nearly $2.2 million annually. This amount of $2.2 million is a $1.7 million increase in our insurance, which is approximately 3 ½ times our prior-year insurance premiums to cover an 80% employer portion for all participating full-time employees.

You mentioned during the telecast that restaurants with approximately 30% labor need only increase prices 2.5%. This price appears to be arrived at by taking 7.9% times 30%. Quite frankly, we cannot just look at a percent of a percent, but instead we must look at the actual dollars involved. A $1.7 million increase would directly decrease “bottom line” profit. In order to produce the same “bottom line” as we are generating today, a 16% to 20% in “top line” sales would be required due to variable costs such as labor, food costs, operating expenses, marketing and taxes. Thus, it is incorrect to assume we can just add $1.7 million to the “top line” and expect it to flow directly to the “bottom line.”

The second article was written by Mr. Cain himself entitled “The Real State of the Union” as a followup response to the President’s State of the Union address. It’s an interesting read with a by the numbers discussion on the current state of our union. Here’s an excerpt:

The day after the president’s State of the Union speech, an appliance installation and repair man was installing some new appliances in our home. Unsolicited, he said he had a hard time sleeping last night after hearing the president’s speech. When I asked why, he said he did not hear anything in the speech that made him feel that America is safer as a nation, nor did he hear anything that would really help grow the economy. I told him I agreed with him, and that he expressed the feelings of probably most of us who are not intoxicated by the president’s words and his delivery. Many people are, but most of us are not…Many of the most compelling facts about the real state of our economy were missing from the president’s speech.

Gross Domestic Product did grow year over year in 2010 by 2.6 percent. But China’s economy grew by around 10 percent, which means, at those comparable rates, China’s economy will surpass us 15 to 20 years from now. Since China holds the largest percentage of our foreign-held debt, I consider that a national security threat as well as a threat to our financial stability. In fact, the total amount of U.S. Treasury Securities held by foreign countries increased 18.5 percent in 2010 (Treasury.gov). That’s not a comforting sign.

Check out both articles as they provide some interesting insight into the ideas of a lesser known candidate.
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-Matt Newman is a conservative blogger from Maryland who blogs at Old Line Elephant and Tweets far too often.