Cain Calls Wall Street Protesters ‘Anti-Capitalism’

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain reiterated his criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protesters Friday, saying the groups are “anti-capitalism” and “anti-free market.”

“They are not working on the right problem,” Cain said at a social conservatives convention in Washington. “Wall Street didn’t write those failed policies. Wall Street didn’t spend a trillion dollars. You can demonstrate all you want on Wall Street, the problem is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

“If you never work on the right problem, you’ll never get the right answer,” Cain added.

Similar to the three other  GOP candidates who spoke at Friday’s Voter Values Summit, Cain delved into his stance on foreign policy.  He said the “Cain philosophy”  would be to “clarify who our friends are, clarify who our enemies are and stop giving money to our enemies.”

If elected, Cain said his first order of business would be to upgrade America’s ballistic defense missile systems, position the missile defenses on naval ships near the Middle East and then say to Iranian President Ahmadinejad, “Make my day.”

In typical Cain fashion the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza touted his 9-9-9 economic plan. In the standing-room-only hotel ballroom the crowd chanted “9-9-9? along with the candidate.

“This solution starts with throwing out the existing tax code, which is a mess, and replace it with my 9-9-9 plan,” Cain said as the crowd chanted “9-9-9? along with him.

Cain’s plan would put in place a 9 percent sales tax and reduce income and corporate taxes to a flat 9 percent. Fellow GOP candidate Rick Santorum took a leaf out of Cain’s book earlier in the day and introduced his own 0-0-0 plan.

“I have a better plan,” Santorum said.

The former Pennsylvania senator’s plan would levy zero income tax on manufacturing companies, zero taxes on repatriated corporate profits that are invested in manufacturing equipment and zero Obama-era regulations.

In the weeks following Cain’s unveiling of his 9-9-9 plan, he has surged to the top of the polls, tying with Rick Perry for second place in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. Santorum garnered the support of 2 percent of Republican voters in the Oct. 4 poll, compared with Cain’s 16 percent.

Cain joked about his newfound “top tier” status, saying he now has a “bulls eye on his back.”

“They are afraid that this long shot may not be a long shot any longer,” he said.