Stephen Moore of the WSJ has been consistently sounding the alarm that even the middle class is now getting hammered with new taxes, starting in 2010 and continuing on into 2011. He said this week on Fox News that the average family would see a $1000 to $3000 direct, visible increase in their tax bill this year.
Some of the biggest factors causing the tax increases:
The Bush tax cuts are expiring
The Alternative Minimum Tax juggernaut is continuing to affect more and more Americans as Congress does nothing about it.
New payroll taxes that will be used to support the health care bill.
Increases in the death tax.
Increases in the capital gains tax.
Federal tax deduction for state and local taxes goes away.
And of course, various state-level taxes–sales, real estate, income–are going up as cash-strapped states refuse to cut spending.
It’s hard to believe that even socialists cannot grasp the concept that RAISING taxes in the middle of a recession makes things worse, but apparently, they are going to continue doing just that. And the absolutely tepid, lame response of the so-called Republicans in Congress has been disgusting.
I have never liked the solution of “vote out every incumbent,” as I always thought it sounded like a rather mindless and reactionary solution. But now, I am starting to wonder if anything else will work. They are just not listening.
Unless there is a candidate with a glowing record of following the constitution I am voting against every representative up for re-election. Rep., Dem, doesn’t mean a hill of beans anymore to me, It seems all of them are too far right or left for me. Why does it have to always be picking the lessor of 2 evils?
I guess that goes right up there with “read my lips…” but in defense of GHWB the situation had changed between that statement and his raising taxes. I am pretty sure the current President knew all along his policies would lead to much higher taxes on the middle class and lied about it to get elected. How so many people fell for his unadulterated bullpuckey will go down as one of the great mysteries in American political history.
In WA state, they have recently increased taxes of the nickle-and-dime variety. Problem is, they tax in all these “little” ways and hope you don’t notice, but they add up all across the board in addition to the “big” taxes that are more visible. Some examples of the increases:
$1 a pack on cigarettes. The WA cig tax is now over $3 a pack!!!
Increased beer tax. The increase amounts to about $15 per 31-gallon barrel, or about $1.12 per case of 24. If you are a brewery, this $15 increase almost triples your effective per-barrel tax, from $8 to over $23.
New taxes on candy, bottled water, and carbonated beverages. These items are no longer treated as “food” items, so they are now subject to the sales tax of around 9%. The absurdity of this tax is shown in that there are now government documents in WA state defining “What is candy” for the purposes of the tax.
The communists in charge are intentionally trying to drive the economy into the ground and collapse the dollar/economy. They know exactly what they’re doing, hang on for the ride. Double-digit inflation is just around the corner and double-digit interest rates along with that.
We were supposed to get to keep our insurance if we liked it too …
2 weeks ago I got a letter from my provider of the last decade, that I am 110% satisfied with, informing me that my major medical (meaning high ticket actual disaster care coverage policy and no sniffly noses coverage) no longer matched federally required guidelines and was cancelled.
So now after 10 years of coverage the heath care bill took away my coverage.
And this is just the sort of policy that they should want people to have. This will actually reduce healthcare costs if everyone has this sort of policy…
I just got a letter at work stating they are adding our heath benefits to our earned income for 2011. So for some it will shoot you into the higher tax bracket.
Thanks for the change!!!
Go pay a visit to your HR or Benefits department and ask them what that means and why they think they need to do that. I am not an expert on this by any means but I do not believe that employers are losing their tax break for healthcare expenditures (unless may this has to do with so-called Cadillac plans and that is what you have?).
