In the words of Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst at NBG Productions, the end of the Social Security payroll tax holiday "hurts seriously."
While standing in line at the grocery store, I overheard the customer ahead of me lamenting her reduced paycheck. From what she said, I could tell that she was one of the people I consciously avoided becoming, someone who became accustomed to having that money available to spend. For her new-found financial distress, she blamed Obama.
As far as I know, that's not quite accurate - my reading on the matter points to the expiration of the tax holiday being due to neither side of the aisle showing much interest in extending it into a third year. However, mistaken as it may be to pin this particular matter on Obama, I think it's a good primer for people who may still be suffering from hope-nosis to begin getting angry with the man. It might make it easier for them to identify the source of a lot of reduced opportunities and higher costs that they'll be facing thanks to the policies he represents.
A few stories that have appeared online in the last couple of days echo that:
Since that last headline included a hash tag, I decided to pull it up on twitter to see what's there; it's pretty entertaining: #whyismypaychecklessthisweek. Here's a few choice selections:
"Still upset w/your lower paycheck? Try this: don’t think of it as a tax, think of it as a penalty. Better now?"
"Because you are one of the many millionaires and billionaires that are earning $50-$250k ;)"
"Because you are not on Food Stamps, SSDI, Section 8 Housing, Obamaphone, or in Prison you racist conservative."
"because you get your news from The View and voted for Obama. Trust me, you deserve less pay."That last one wasn't one of my favorites, but I included it because of my own anecdotal "man on the street" moment this evening, which inspired this post:
While standing in line at the grocery store, I overheard the customer ahead of me lamenting her reduced paycheck. From what she said, I could tell that she was one of the people I consciously avoided becoming, someone who became accustomed to having that money available to spend. For her new-found financial distress, she blamed Obama.
As far as I know, that's not quite accurate - my reading on the matter points to the expiration of the tax holiday being due to neither side of the aisle showing much interest in extending it into a third year. However, mistaken as it may be to pin this particular matter on Obama, I think it's a good primer for people who may still be suffering from hope-nosis to begin getting angry with the man. It might make it easier for them to identify the source of a lot of reduced opportunities and higher costs that they'll be facing thanks to the policies he represents.
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