Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
The whole social security withholding tax going up at least $1,000 for everyone thing still happens, which i find somewhat annoying. Sure its only what, $83 a month, but it was my $83 a month and I had plans for it. And they dragged it on long enough regardless that we're going to hit recession again, if not from this, but from anticipation of the debt ceiling negotiations happening in the next few weeks. Again. These idiots on both sides are playing nuclear brinksmanship with our economy and they should all be impeached for doing so.
Honestly, while I understand the politics of the language choices surrounding this, the social security tax holiday ending was the one thing I didn't have a problem with (in terms of tax increases anyway). It should never have been reduced in the first place, really didn't help at all during the financial crisis, and created exactly the false sort of (but now my taxes are going up!) perception you mention. Payroll taxes are already not high enough to pay for SS and Medicare. While I'm not a huge fan of either program, especially as they are structured and funded, at least it's one tax that ensures that everyone has some skin in the game, and while it's still grossly tilted in terms of benefits versus dollars paid, it's at least less so than the rest of our tax/spend methodology.
IMO, the GOP basically won this round. By holding to a "no taxes at all" position, they got the Dems to agree to make the Bush taxes permanent (something they were not able to do back in 2001 when they controlled both houses) except for income over 400k. That's frankly a minor concession (and a hell of a lot better than the 200k level the Dems originally wanted), given the bigger gains. It's kinda like wanting a triple scoop ice cream cone with sprinkles on it, and getting a triple scoop ice cream cone, but with only 90% of the sprinkles you wanted.
The great thing is that they managed to do this while making the Dems think that they were putting one over on them, so a bunch of Republicans could vote against it in the house, still get the bill passed, and still keep their tax promises. It's like a double win really. Great job holding the line really.