I could not have taken a100 dollar monthly tax hike

[arely staircase]

Thanks to my president hanging tough I don't have to

[Mona]

1. if you pay into social security...

...You're still looking at a tax hike, if I understand things correctly?

That will hit me pretty hard

[arely staircase]

2. how so

[W_HAMILTON]

3. Because the payroll tax cut was apparently the one tax cut they didn't want to extend/alter. n/t

n/t

[coti]

25. Not to defend Obama, but the payroll tax cut that was just ended was the same mistaken payroll tax

cut Obama put in place to begin with.

[W_HAMILTON]

30. Yes...

...but the Bush tax cuts were an even bigger, more costly mistake, yet he supported making most of them permanent.

As I've said elsewhere, the payroll tax cut should have been left in effect and offset by raising the taxable threshold (or some other means, if you prefer).

As it stands, this so-called "win" for the Democrats will result in almost every low and middle class tax payer paying higher taxes this year than they did the previous year due to the payroll tax cut not being extended and no other meaningful tax cuts being proposed in exchange for allowing this temporary tax cut to lapse.

[TheKentuckian]

36. Good! We have to fund Social Security and it should have never been cut in the first place.

It is this exact line of reasoning that makes any tax cut a drown the government in a bathtub poison pill.

What is it you want government to do? How will you resource this mission?

A win from here would end the payroll tax and the Bush cuts and would accept the defense sequester but would turn it around a spend it for ten years on infrastructure while deleting the sequester on the spending side to start, while permanently taking the bottom bracket to about 8%.

Not that winning was a possibility.

[darkangel218]

28. Youre kidding, right??

[W_HAMILTON]

29. No. n/t

n/t

[jfern]

4. You probably just got a big tax hike

Social Security taxes are going up by 2%.

[W_HAMILTON]

6. Yeah.

By my count, if you make $60,000/year, your monthly tax bill just went up $100/month.

Due to not extending the payroll tax cut, basically any low or middle class person will see their taxes go up. You will pay the same income tax rate as last year and a higher payroll tax rate. Nice deal, huh?

[arely staircase]

7. payrol.ss.cuts

Are something I opposed to begin with

[JDPriestly]

12. To the rate that people have paid since the 1980s. It's worth it to have Social Security

when you get older. That is a small price to pay.

[arely staircase]

19. yes

Eom

[JaneyVee]

5. I would have taken an 8% reduction in yearly income. Which would have meant me having to find

a new place to live. If that's even possible.

[Kennah]

8. Our minivan is paid for, so there was always going to be a roof over our heads.

[JaneyVee]

15. SHOTGUN!

Btw, my above figure came from a fiscal cliff calculator someone posted here on DU. Not sure of the accuracy being the proposals have changed so many times.

[Kennah]

21. I'm somewhat serious in the belief we may see tent cities of people living out of their vans

VW Splitties and Loafs of the 60s turned into Caravans, Astros, or a Relay in my case.

[arely staircase]

9. 1300 bucks a year

More in taxes would have been a diaster for me.

[JDPriestly]

13. Hey! We who are now retired used to pay those 1300 bucks a year more than you will pay.

It wasn't so bad, and the country was in much better shape.

[RebelOne]

32. Yes, I gotta agree.

I am retired now and I am happy that I paid that money into Social Security. At least I have some money coming in monthly.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. I was told earlier that the $150-$200 that would probably leave each paycheck

Was just, y'know, some extra cash I could use to go out to eat a couple of more time!

The fucking arrogance of some of these supposed lefties is astounding.

[arely staircase]

11. 100 dollar hit

Would have caused me to fail some serious obligations

[JDPriestly]

14. We who were not born yesterday paid the rates that would have come back.

I can't believe the reactions of people to paying their taxes. We paid them. I'm glad you don't have to, but we managed to survive while paying the higher rates.

[Kennah]

16. I don't think it's an issue of people not wanting to pay taxes

I think it's an issue of people living at the edge and tipping over if they paid more taxes

[Occulus]

17. No, it's an issue of people NOT living that close to the edge

and being unable to relate to the problems of those who must, by accident or malicious design.

[Kennah]

20. Perhaps I was unclear, but I was not talking about one percenters.

I was talking about working people whose taxes would have gone up. Nevertheless, even if we would have tipped over, and we're already living at the edge, selling stuff to eat, keep the utilities turned on, rent paid, I was one saying, "Hit the gas Thelma." Maybe if there's a bit more of a crash, then shit will get real come 2014.

[arely staircase]

18. thats me

Eom

[JDPriestly]

22. Buy we did it. We did not have a lot of the things people have today -- cell phones, etc.

[SoCalDem]

23. Our sons cannot fathom, 15.85 % home loan interest

or wage freezes like we had in our young lives..and high (for us) taxes..

It's all relative, I guess...and things that are now considered to be necessities, would have been wildly extravagant splurges for us..

times change and I guess expectations do as well..

So many of the "must-haves", we have never indulged in, so we would not miss them if we could suddenly not afford them..

[Kennah]

24. Read Elizabeth Warren some time

Consumers have NOT gone nuts spending themselves into oblivion. In some areas, like consumer electronics, spending has risen, but in other areas, like clothing, spending has fallen. It's been overall fairly static, including wages, but the price of housing has skyrocketed.

Besides, if we're talking about the federal budget, very clearly it's been the unfunded wars and a military budget that is larger than the next 10 militaries of the world that has brought us here. Not people with their cell phones.

[mrsadm]

26. Totally agree ...

The military spending compared to other countries is INSANE

[Enrique]

33. the arrogant lefties like every single Democrat in Congress

when the Democratic Party unanimously voted against the Bush tax cuts, twice.

[bubbayugga]

27. time for the 1% to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan. shoulda listened to us. dipshits.

[Enrique]

31. don't look at your next paycheck

if you can't take it

[n2doc]

34. Don't count your chickens (or Benjamins) before they've hatched

Cantor et all seem prepared to blow it all up.

[Nikia]

35. While I understand that your on the edge

I can't help but think of the area where I grew up that has a large contingent of people voting against any tax increase. Almost every tax levy has been voted down in the past 10 years because of them. As a result the schools and town infrastructure and services have gone to hell. Yes, factories have closed and the ones that stay or have come in pay a lot less. They are poorer, which is why revenue is less. More of them are saying, we can't afford more taxes as the school buildings, bridges, and roads fall apart. They say we can't afford more taxes as wild animals overrun the town because the city no longer hires for someone to do that. They cut the police department as heroin and meth dealers come in and thefts, including armed robberies increase. They cry for someone to do something, but we couldn't possibly afford to pay more taxes.
I am sorry that you can't afford more taxes, but unfortunately less tax revenue has consequences.