Supreme Dishonesty, And, Unfortunately, Very Effective

Most people have very little understanding of how much they really pay in FICA taxes. A few comments to this Hugh Hewitt post highlight the truth:

12.4% Tax Hike for All

Hugh, under Obama's plan all workers would 'pay' 6.2% more on the targeted income, but wouldn't employers also 'pay' the other 6.2% as well? After all, that is money available for and allocated to payroll costs for any business, not just what the employee sees on their paystub.

...

12.4 NOT 6.2 ...

The Feds take 12.4% if you are self employeed ... and all you W-2 workers would get a 6.2% raise if you had to pay it all yourself ...

...

Anyway, that always seemed to me to be one of the truly sleazy things about payroll taxes: make people believe that they are being taxed only 6.2%, when in reality, one is being taxed 11.68%. How can I say that? Well, if someone's income is $100k, their employer is actually paying $106,200. (And I'm even ignoring medicare.) If it weren't for having to pay this amount, the employer could afford to pay that employee $106,200. (And by labor supply and demand, incomes would definitely rise to about that amount.) So, payroll taxes really are taking 11.68%, not 6.2%. Certainly self-employed people know what I'm talking about. Again---this is not accounting for FICA taxes for medicare either.