From the Trenches

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From TPM Reader RG

I’ve been reading and communicating with you for some years. I own a few small businesses, and earlier this morning I had a conversation with the woman who does our payroll, as I’m planning the coming week’s activity. I think that something that is simply not getting enough airtime is the really nitty gritty about the cost of this fiscal cliff insanity.

As of today, my employees don’t know what their tax rate will be next week. Probably it will start as one rate, then change, if things go along as they appear to be going. However, this means that we’ll have to make adjustments, that our payroll systems will have to keep this all straight, and that I, as a manager have to watch to see that the taxes don’t get booked or paid wrong. This is incredible. All because the ridiculous lawmakers can’t do their jobs, or because republicans want to vote for decrease rather than an increase. The cost of the silliness is probably way higher than we can tell, all because of appearances, for folks getting paid way too much to make too little happen. Insanity!

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