Not a Peep From the Tea Party

To sum up:

Removing tax credits for oil companies: Tax hike.
Removing tax credits for people with children: NOT a tax hike.

And speaking of removing tax credits for people with children and raising Michiganders' taxes...

Wow! It's quite a sight. The outrage, the anger, the united seas of humanity and tri-corn hats protesting Michigan Governor's tax hikes on Michiganders. The Don't Tread on Me flags hoisted high! The....the....complete and utter silence. Seriously...where's the Taxed Enough Already Party?

The TEA Party crowd has been eerily quiet in Michigan considering Republican Governor Rick Snyder just ratcheted up everybody's taxes:

That's not likely to console a taxpaying couple making $55,000 who will lose their homestead credit, deductions for their two kids and will pay a higher tax rate in the future than under the old tax law. That's hardly a unique couple and in 2013 their tax bill will be $739 higher, according to the House Fiscal Agency.

A couple with three children making $110,000, for example, will absorb a tax hit in 2013 of $190, $549 less than the aforementioned couple making half as much.


Or take a retired couple born after 1952 with $53,000 in income and a $4,000 property tax bill. Next year they lose their entire homestead credit and will pay income tax on every dime of their pension. It adds up to a $3,130 tax hit.

Next door a couple, in which the older spouse was born before 1953 but after 1945, also has $48,000 in pension income. And $27,000 in Social Security. They’ll lose some homestead credit as well, but the income tax will apply to only $8,000 of their pension. That's because the first $40,000 is exempted for their year-of-birth group. Their tax increase is $590.

But get this.....these aren't called tax increases.

Why?

Because the State is merely getting rid of Tax Credits and Tax Exemptions.

- Homestead Tax Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Pension exemptions

Michigan conservatives use their removal of tax credits as a technicality to say they never raised taxes.

Which is interesting considering that when Obama suggests removing tax credits to raise Federal revenue in the Debt Ceiling talks, conservatives use THAT as a way to say Obama is going to raise taxes.

If there was consistency, I might actually think Republican leaders have a shred of sincerity.