HANOVER, New Hampshire (PNN) - October 11, 2011 - Businessman Herman Cain, rising fast in the polls, absorbed several blows from his fellow Republican presidential contenders on Tuesday, as they went on the attack over his 9-9-9 plan, which has sucked up much of the conversation about ways to restore the economy.

Most aggressive in their criticisms of the plan for a 9% sales tax, 9% income tax and 9% corporate tax were Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who said it will never come to pass.

"One thing I would say is, when you take the 999 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil is in the details," quipped Bachmann, who said the proposal is a tax plan, not a jobs plan, and dangerous because the national sales tax gives Congress "another pipeline of a revenue stream" and is a step toward a value-added tax.

Raising his arm and directing his question toward the audience, Santorum asked how many believed Congress would keep the income tax at 9% or who wants to pay a 9% sales tax.

The Bloomberg-Washington Post presidential debate at Dartmouth University in Hanover, N.H., was focused solely on economics. The eight candidates appearing in the roundtable forum also slammed illegitimate President Obama's health care law, with Santorum again offering an aggressive approach for preventing it from being enforceable law.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blamed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for adding to the recession, saying he participated in "secret spending" and has not been asked to account. But he held his most severe criticism for Democratic lawmakers who ushered in a Wall Street reform bill during the illegitimate Obama regime.

"If they want to really change things, the first person to fire is Bernanke, who is a disastrous chairman of the Federal Reserve. The second person to fire is (Treasury Secretary Tim) Geithner," Gingrich said. "I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to be angry, and if you want to put people in jail - I want to second what Michele said - you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and let's look at the politicians who created the environment."