Two big endorsements for Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan from two proven conservative supply-side economists.

Here’s Paul Ryan’s interview with the Daily Caller.

Excerpt:

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan said in an interview with The Daily Caller that he “loves” the idea of having “specific and credible” plans, like presidential candidate Herman Cain’s signature “9-9-9″ proposal, in the national debate about tax policy.

Ryan told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that Cain’s plan is a good starting point for debate, and shows the GOP presidential campaign season has entered into a more advanced stage where ideas — not just personalities — have come to the forefront.

“We need more bold ideas like this because it is specific and credible,” Ryan said. “I’m more of a flat-tax kind of a guy.”

The budget chairman went on to say that ideas like Cain’s plan could help shape the debate over tax reform moving into 2013.

“It’s great to see such bold ideas,” Ryan told TheDC.

[…]“I consider Paul Ryan to be one of the brightest minds in Washington, D.C.,” said Mark Block, Cain’s chief of staff, “Mr. Cain looks forward to sitting down with Congressman Ryan.

Here’s more about a possible VP nomination for Ryan.

Excerpt:

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan “loves” Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan and sees the proposal as “specific and credible” – a major endorsement for a surging GOP presidential candidate.

“We need more bold ideas like this because it is specific and credible,” Ryan said in an interview with the Daily Caller. “I’m more of a flat-tax kind of a guy.”

Cain is returning the love. He said Wednesday that he sees Ryan as the type of person he would want as a Vice Presidential nominee were he to win the Republican primary, the Hill reported.

“I’ll give you a name, like representative Paul Ryan. I’m not saying he would be a V.P. pick. He might be. But that’s the type of person that I would want in my cabinet. He is the type of person,” said Cain on the Steve Gill Show.

Ryan said hoped Cain’s plan – which would replace the current code with a 9 percent tax on all personal income, corporate income and sales – would encourage legislators to consider tax reform in coming sessions, the Hill reported.

Ryan says that Cain is thinking the right way, and that he believed that critiques of the plan would make it stronger.

“It’s great to see such bold ideas,” Ryan said.

Excerpt:

The famed economist told HUMAN EVENTS that the proposal was pro-growth and would create the proper conditions for America’s economy to expand and thrive again.

“Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan would be a vast improvement over the current tax system and a boon to the U.S. economy,” Laffer told HUMAN EVENTS in a statement. “The goal of supply-side tax reform is always a broadening of the tax base and lowering of marginal tax rates.”

Added Laffer: “Mr. Cain’s plan is simple, transparent, neutral with respect to capital and labor, and savings and consumption, and also greatly decreases the hidden costs of tax compliance. There is no doubt that economic growth would surge upon implementation of 9-9-9.”

Laffer also said that “such a system provides the least avenues to avoid paying taxes, yet also maintains the strongest incentives for work effort, production, and investment.”

Everyone is talking about Chris Christie’s endorsement of Mitt Romney… but Christie is a RINO. I’m sure that Romney will get endorsements from John McCain, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, too. But Paul Ryan’s endorsement is the endorsement that really matters.