Originally Posted by TSGracchus

Certainly those are tax increases, Oreo, but you're misrepresenting them when you say that they are tax increases on everyone or on the working class. An increase in the capital gains tax affects only those who have income derived from taxable capital gains. For the vast majority of Americans, the only significant capital gains they will ever see comes from the sale of a home, and that is not taxable up to a very high value.

As for raising the Social Security tax cap, let's be clear about what that means. The Social Security payroll tax is a fixed percentage on all earned income up to the cap, and I believe the current cap is $87,000.

What this means is that you pay the fixed Social Security tax percentage on ALL of your income if you make $87,000 or less, but only on PART of your income if you make more than $87,000. Raising that cap will mean that people who earn very high salaries will pay more in Social Security taxes, but nobody else will pay any more at all.

Obviously, a typical wage earner does not make more than $87,000 a year, and so this will not be a tax increase on most Americans.

I also would suggest that most wage earners who DO make more than that, are not employees of small businesses, except perhaps a small professional firm such as a law firm or doctor's office. Most small businesses can't afford to pay that kind of money to their employees.