There is no tax increase for you in this bill. Please note that the 2% reduction in FICA tax was a temporary thing in previous law, was effective for only a short time to act as a temporary stimulus. Now the rate goes back to normal 6.2%. It is not a real tax increase by any standard.
Without this bill your income tax rates would have been higher, since the Bush tax cuts were never permanent and scheduled to expire in 2012.
I don’t play those games. My FICA withholding is going up again, which means less money in my pocket. That’s a tax increase. I don’t care if what preceded it was temporary or not. I can’t afford to look at it as anything but a net-effect on my family’s bottom line.
Still, I could swallow that a lot more easily if the Republican Party hadn’t abandoned the idea of trying to get any sort of spending cut in this bill. Instead, CBO scores it as adding to the deficit.
I know, GOP-E will tell me they’ll REALLY fight hard for cuts in the NEXT argument. Just you wait and see, they’ll say.
Let me just say I’ll believe that when I see it, because I haven’t seen it yet. They talk a good game and when the chips are down, they fold their hand. I’m sick of it.
I’m paying now. My grandchildren will pay when they’re born. The government will downsize ... well, never, if ‘leaders’ like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell still pull the strings of the so-called opposition party in Washington.