The so-called fiscal cliff deal will mean that the temporary payroll tax cut will expire. This means most people will see an increase in taxes on their income. Make no mistake: Most people pay taxes on their income and most people will now see an increase of two percent in their tax burden under the new deal. This will affect anyone who earns wages.

That nonsense that conservatives and Republicans were repeating about how “47 percent” of Americans pay no tax was always pure fantasy. Everyone who earns wages pays taxes on that income in the form of payroll taxes. Now all of us who earn wages will see an increase in the taxes we pay on income.

We can thank the Republicans for making sure the now-expired tax cuts were temporary, and we can also thank the Republicans for doing nothing to stop this tax increase. But, in the minds of conservatives and Republicans, I suppose, no one is seeing a tax increase but “the rich” because, well, payroll taxes don’t count.

The false classification of payroll taxes as non-taxes is perpetuated of course by social-security recipients who live in denial of the fact that they are on welfare and that payroll taxes are nothing more than taxes collected from current workers to pay the bills of old pensioners who are living on the backs of present workers. By pretending that payroll taxes aren’t real taxes, social security recipients are helping Obama and the other tax raisers claim that only the rich are seeing a tax increase with this current deal.

UPDATE: Thanks to Laurence Vance for reminding me that the payroll tax cut was a stimulus tax cut from the early days of Obama. It was not from the Bush years. In fact, the Republicans opposed the tax cut until they were shamed into supporting the cut. Payroll tax cuts of course benefit all those “lazy” people who work for low hourly wages, and who in a conservative fantasy land don’t pay taxes.

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