sounds like The Onion, but isn’t

The headline is actually from The Huffington Post:

“Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Tax Proposal Astonishingly Similar To SimCity’s”

‘Kip Katsarelis, a senior producer for Maxis, the company that created the SimCity series, was excited that politicians may be looking to video games for ideas.

“We encourage politicians to continue to look to innovative games like SimCity for inspiration for social and economic change,” said Katsarelis. “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.”

Adopting such a simple tax structure, Katsarelis said, would allow fantasy political leaders to focus their energy on infrastructure and national security. “Our game design team thought that an easy to understand taxation system would allow players to focus on building their cities and have fun thwarting giant lizard attacks, rather than be buried by overly complex financial systems.”

A receptionist at Lowrie’s Wells Fargo office said she doubted his idea came from SimCity. “Probably not,” she told The Huffington Post. “I don’t think he’s much of a game person.” Presumably, under the Cain plan, disasters would be turned off.’