Don't know how this turned to politics (but it always seems to), but I'll take a shot at this...
Under President Obama's plan, most if not all SWA Captains, and not a few FOs will pay more in Federal income tax. That's due to increases in marginal tax rates for those individuals making >$200k, and married making >$250k. That's the basic tax increase that is visible to everyone and talked about every time the President speaks or Gov Romney speaks about the President. However, that's not all.
What is less talked-about, are additional tax increases that affect not only those "millionaires and billionaires," as the President refers to us, but most other Americans as well. For instance, the President desires to tax capital gains at ordinary income rates (any one who has mutual funds will feel a tax increase). In Obamacare, there are all sorts of hidden tax increases that we'll all feel in the coming years. Interest income will be taxed at higher rates (talk about killing the incentive to save or invest!), if you have a good health insurance plan that your union negotiated as part of your compensation, you will pay a "cadlillac health plan tax," in the form of imputed income, because you have a better health care plan than the government feels is "fair." If you sell your house (to move, for instance), you will pay a 3-point-something percent sales tax on the sales price (not the gain, if there even is any) to help pay for Obamacare. Yet to be determined is if you make a gain on the sale. Right now, you're tax-exempt on the first $250k/$500k (single/married), but no one will even talk about whether that gain is included in the President's plan to up the taxes on capital gains. Those are the first few that I can think of, but you can bet there'll be more. The bigger your bureaurocracy, the more you have to pay to feed it.
When the President talks about "no tax increases for the middle class," he is: a) not talking about us, because his definition of middle class is diffferent than ours (I consider myself upper middle class while the President considers me a millionaire); and b) only referring to direct federal income tax. Unless you subsist solely on entitlements (or literally live paycheck-to-paycheck in a rental, with no savings or investing of any kind), you WILL pay more tax to the feds under President Obama's plans, in one way or another.
Bubba
