w-smith - it matters not where the taxes came from nor whether they were temporary or not. Obama promised, swore, pledged, that those making under $250K would NOT see an increase in their taxes. He had every opportunity to extend or make permanent the cuts. Promise broken. Most of us understood he was only saying it to get votes. Besides that, there are other ways to hide tax increases. Tax businesses more, and those costs get passed on down to consumers. The businesses (covering their bottom line) get blamed, but the only one making out is the government. The poor are hurt even more so by their dollars having less spending punch.