Say what now?

If you know me or have read my blog for any amount of time, you know that I am a fiscal conservative.  I'm very middle of the road, dare I say, even liberal (gulp), on certain things (human rights), but monetary policy is not one of them.  I am very happy that Congress is working to extend the tax cuts, because I think raising taxes at this time would be a terrible idea.  I was just reading this article (yes, I know... Fox News but it's not an opinion piece) and came across this little nugget from President Obama, "It is a substantial victory for middle-class families across the country who would no longer have to worry about a massive tax hike come Jan. 1."  I thought the tax hike was only supposed to affect the wealthy, those couples making over $250,000 per year (or individuals making over $200,000).  But, now he's saying that it's the middle class.  Don't get me wrong, I think $250,000 per year is an awful lot of money, but I also wouldn't really call that wealthy.  You're probably not amassing a ton of liquid net worth at that income level, assuming both parents are working (investing in 401K, other investment, child care expenses, other expenses associated with two career-minded parents like possibly paying a house cleaner, etc.).  I digress, but you see where I'm going.

I'd like to go back to the word "massive" in President Obama's quote, as in massive tax hike.  So, now we're admitting that not only does said tax hike affect the middle class, it is massive.  I'm not coming down on our President; in fact, I applaud him for going against many in his party to do what I believe is the right thing for our economy at this juncture.  It's just funny how it was no big deal before... the wealthy were going to pay a little more in taxes... but now the middle class is being saved from a massive tax hike.

On a related note, don't even get me started on the estate tax!!!!  It is the most asinine thing to me.  Hey, let's tax someone who (more than likely) worked hard to amass wealth, and already paid taxes on that wealth.  Let's not only tax that money again, let's tax it at as much as 55%!!!!  The day we are paying our government more than half of our income in one fell swoop, I'm sending all of my money to offshore accounts in the Caymans.  I'm sure once I calculate federal and state income taxes, property tax, sales tax, gas tax, vehicle tax, etc. we're paying more than 50% of our income to the government, but all at once?  Makes me want to vomit.

And, now I'm off my political platform...  back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Edited to add: this