NYTimes opinion writer Tim Egan unpacks the the pain sandwich that Herman Cain is trying to sell to GOP primary voters, the “999” tax plan that he claims would simplify the tax code and juice the economy. Read Egan here, and get the NYT if you want more.

Also, in today’s Globe, Scot “one t” Lehigh makes fun of the “job creators” magic term that conservatives, mostly, are using to innoculate the wealthiest among us from any criticism or worst of all a reversion to 1990s federal tax assignments. What political strategist at which high level retreat came up with the idea to use the term “job creators” instead of “business people” or “the wealthiest Americans?” Whoever it is has been amazingly successful. I hear it used over and over by mostly national Republican office-holders and GOP consultants. Maybe they get a quarter every time they use it. This is another skirmish in the political language war that is starting to feel like the Hundred Years War in old Europe and which has led to names for public laws like “The Defense of Marriage Act.”

Here’s the transcript of a recent NPR interview with a business and public policy scholar about “job creators.”

WOLFERS: What’s funny about that Boehner quote is, I think we used to call them as – employers. So obviously, there’s some political rhetoric here. But, you know, it depends where we are in the business cycle. Right now, there’s a lot of hiring going on, for instance, in health, professional business services. And actually, manufacturing has been one of the bright spots as well.