(For more on the 2012 election, see {ELECT <GO>}.)

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman called for a flat-tax plan that is “doable,” saying former Godfather’s Pizza chief executive Herman Cain’s so-called nine- nine-nine plan is a “catchy phrase” that he thought “was the price of a pizza when I first heard it.”

Huntsman said he supports ending loopholes and deductions in exchange for a “revenue neutral” decrease in income tax rates.

Cain responded that his plan -- which calls for a 9 percent individual income tax rate, a 9 percent corporate tax rate, and a 9 percent national sales tax -- would pass Congress and has been “well-studied” by economists.

Huntsman and Cain spoke at a debate sponsored by Bloomberg LP and The Washington Post in Hanover, New Hampshire.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Drummond in Washington at bdrummond@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Rubin at jimrubin@bloomberg.net