Paying more next year?

Congress went home without passing a budget because they were too afraid overspending would be used against them. And they went home without extending the Bush tax cuts because they were too afraid tax increases would be used against them. But neither issue sits idly by while candidates, back home, lie to their constituents. We keep borrowing and spending despite our lack of a budget, and the Treasury department is busily assuming your tax rates are going up next year because that is the law Congress failed to change on their way out the door.

Congress returns in the middle of November, which is when the tax-rate tables are normally sent to businesses for the new year. Unless Congress acts immediately upon return, every single earner in America is likely going to be paying the higher tax rate in early 2011.