The working-class pays for this

[SHRED]

The SSI "tax holiday" expires.
Rather than entertaining the notion of lifting the contribution cap...no... instead we get to pay an estimated $1,000 per year for a median income household.


WTF?

Though it has received little attention from the press, the White House and congressional leaders, the decision not to include an extension of the payroll tax holiday is among the most consequential, and will lead to lower take-home pay for workers. A person earning $50,000 will see roughly $1,000 less. Economists have warned that allowing the tax holiday to expire saps spending power from consumers while demand in the economy is still fragile.

Meanwhile, the deal contains a major giveaway to Wall Street, which won a 20 percent rate on dividends above $400,000, a rate that otherwise would've risen to the Clinton-era rate of 39.6. (That doesn't include an additional 3.8 percent that will be implemented to pay for health care reform, another tax hike that received little attention.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/01/fiscal-cliff-deal-passed-_n_2394022.html

[Skittles]

1. the holiday is what it means - TEMPORARY

it was always TEMPORARY

I agree the cap should be lifted, though

[SHRED]

2. so was the estate tax threshold...correct?

Well guess what? It's stays at 5 million.

[Skittles]

3. I never said the whole deal was good

that part stinks to high heaven

[BlueCaliDem]

19. It is offset by the permanent AMT fix for the middle class.

If the deal hadn't passed, the average tax increase for affected households would total almost $3,700 for 2012, according to the Tax Policy Center. Married taxpayers in more affluent, higher-tax states would be hit hardest, because they tend to accumulate the types of tax breaks that the AMT targets.

The tax deal makes permanent a number of tax provisions (after making changes from current 2012 policy), including the tax rates on ordinary income; estate tax; dividends and capital gains – and best of all, the alternative minimum tax (AMT).

On AMT, the current exemption of $33,750 individual and $45,000 married is increased to $50,600 single and $78,750 married and indexes the exemption and phaseout amounts. KEY – this new AMT fix is for tax years beginning after December 31, 2011 – i.e. the 2012 tax year.

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[Fumesucker]

4. It's still money out of paychecks that are already too small

Most working class people don't follow politics, what they will see is their smaller paychecks and they will want to blame that on someone.

Let's see how this all works out by the time the M$M spends a few months lying non stop about it.

[Skittles]

5. well the real issue is wages not keeping up

but you are correct that the ill-informed will blame the the party in power

[SHRED]

6. In the M$M it will become the "Democrat's tax hike on working Americans"..

...count on it.

[DevonRex]

7. Funny, back when Obama proposed it everybody said he was killing Social Security

with the holiday. Now the holiday is over there's more whining. Folks need to make up their minds.

[SHRED]

8. I made up mine years ago

Raise the cap.

[Fumesucker]

9. I wasn't complaining personally, rather I'm pointing out how this will be viewed by many

I thought it wasn't a good idea to start with but I can see the negative political repercussions from ending it too.

From a political point of view what worries me is that the Republicans are going to crank up their Mighty Wurlitzer to try and make the Democrats own this effective tax hike on working people and I think they have a good chance of making it stick if the M$M goes along with it which I think they probably will.

[Skittles]

11. of course they will; that's what happens with the corporate media

but you can't make sound policy based on repukes acting like the lying flakes they are

[Fumesucker]

12. Unfortunately the original payroll tax holiday was unsound policy in the long run

I'm just hoping this doesn't turn around and bite the Dems in the ass because I have a feeling it might end up that way.

[Skittles]

15. yup

you could be right

[Skittles]

10. CORRECT

I did not agree with that cut and it is being rightfully restored

[DevonRex]

13. I think it helped some folks through the worst

of the recession. But I'm glad it's done. Social Security needs the money.

[Skittles]

14. there were other ways they could have done that

concentrating on jobs would have been a start

[DevonRex]

16. It was more dire and immediate a need

at the time. It wasn't really done to help individual people, tho it did that, too. It was done because the economy needed a cash infusion desperately. People who needed that money would spend it immediately. It's one of those things that, in retrospect, shows just how bad things were and just how close to complete disaster we got.

You're right, if you're talking longer term, jobs were more important. But they were keeping us from going under in the short term, too. And, as you can see, Congress still hasn't passed Obama's jobs bill and here we sit all these years later - even though we know what the right thing is to do the republicans simply will not do it.

So, you're Obama and the country's going under. It needs cash in the economy. The Republicans won't do jobs. They will pass a payroll tax cut for a short term. So you do that for 2 years. It helps. Then it expires.

[Skittles]

17. research the timing of the healthcare and jobs legislation

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. SS does need the revenue restored, but we have yet to see the worst of the recession. n/t

[Jim Warren]

20. Per usual