Something to keep an eye on

The supposed Mayan apocalypse didn’t get us in December, but

Congress sure did this month.

Some of us are looking at paying higher taxes, whereas the

majority of us will be seeing a smaller paycheck due to the temporary cut in the

Social Security withholding’s expiration.

A person with an annual income of $400,000 or a family with

an annual income of $450,000 will see a higher tax rate. Those families with

incomes over $300,000 or an individual with an income of $250,000 will see some

tax deductions and credits go away.

Although the country didn’t jump headfirst off of the

“fiscal cliff” and the tax debate is over, we still have a major thing to keep

an eye on – spending cuts.

That’s right, sequestration is not gone. It has just been

pushed back until March, which means the fights on Capital Hill aren’t over. (I

guess they wouldn’t be over no matter what because there’s always something to

argue about.)

Sequestration includes cuts across the government, but those

cuts that are looming over the Department of Defense make me anxious,

considering that Robins Air Force Base is right down the street. That base is

this area’s bread and butter.

From what I understand, the active duty military isn’t going

to be affected by the potential slashing of the budget but civilians and

contractors may be. Especially if the people that have been elected to serve in

Congress don’t reach some sort of an agreement.

If the automatic cuts go into effect, $55 billion will be

cut from the DOD budget each year for a decade.

There is no way to predict what these cuts could do to our

base, but we need to verbalize our support for Robins Air Force Base to the

people who are making the decisions in D.C.

HHJ News