Your Taxes Are Down.
Do You Feel It?

One of the recurring themes of last year’s presidential race was that if Barack Obama was elected, Americans would face a barrage of new taxes that would specifically slam the middle class and working families.

Well, guess what? According to a new USA Today analysis, even as federal spending skyrocketed thanks to stimulus packages and bank bailoutsbank bailouts, Americans paid the lowest level of taxes last year since 1950. Federal, state and local taxes, which includes income, property, sales and other taxes, ate up just 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century.

Tea Partiers are still warning that today’s spending will come back as tomorrow’s taxes, but according to the new statistics, in the meantime the average annual tax savings of $3,400 has translated into a 3.2% boost in consumer spending in the first quarter of this year. Then again, the $862 billion stimulus has helped the federal debt grow to a monstrous $8.4 trillion thanks to perks such as an $800 reduction in income taxes on couples earning up to $150,000.

With virtually all stimulus tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, rates are likely to creep back up unless Congress votes to extend them into 2011.

yet all the commenters claim they pay more taxes than ever...?