Tax Policy Center: Average tax increase and after-tax income

[quaker bill]

20. Folks at higher incomes will pay more taxes

in 2013 than they paid in 2012. It is not a tax cut when the amount you owe increases. I got a "tax cut" and will be paying more money to the Feds as a result.

If they had boosted the rates back to the 70 to 90 really old percent ranges, I would have been paying even more. They did not do that, so the rates are not truly "progressive"?

Of course your argument is that the rates were somewhat higher for 12 hours, so it is a "tax cut" in the Norquistian sense. The weakness of this argument is that if the package had been passed 24 hours earlier, you would have to call the exact same deal a "progressive tax increase".

This is a silly argument about semantics. Rich people will be paying more taxes. I am not rich, just a bit above the median, but I will be paying more taxes too.