Herman Cain is running for the Republican presidential nomination. One of the key parts of his platform is his "999" tax plan…but there's a problem. It appears that Cain might have snatched the idea from SimCity.

Cain's plan works like this: the personal tax rate is 9 percent, the corporate tax rate is 9 percent, and the federal sales tax rate is 9 percent, hence the name "999." Huffington Post spotted a striking similarity between Cain's plan and the default settings of SimCity 4. In SimCity 4, the default settings for personal, corporate, and sales tax rates were all set at 9 percent.

For its part, SimCity developer Maxis is flattered. Maxis producer Kip Katsarelis said, "We encourage politicians to continue to look to innovative games like SimCity for inspiration for social and economic change. While we at Maxis and Electronic Arts do not endorse any political candidates or their platforms, it's interesting to see GOP candidate Herman Cain propose a simplified tax system like one we designed for the video game SimCity 4."

Cain's own economic adviser Rich Lowrie did not comment on the similarity. Who knows? Cain has been known to quote Pokemon, so anything's possible!

(thanks to Brandon for the news tip)