You gotta give it to President Obama – he kept his word and raised taxes for singles earning over $250,000 and families making more than $350,000. That’s because don’t pay income taxes on the salaries written in our employment contracts or on the exact dollars in profit our businesses reap. We’re allowed to adjust that income – essentially make it lower so we pay less taxes.

We lower our incomes with amazing IRS investions called “deductions.” You earned $350,000 but gave $10,000 to charity? Great, you have to pay taxes only on $340,000. Oh, with that $340,000 you paid $30,000 in mortgage interest? Yippie, now you have to pay taxes on only $310,000. See how this works? That lowers our tax bill because clearly 33 percent of $310,000 is $102,300 – much less than $115,500. You save more than $13,000 on taxes.

But now, any amount families earn over $350,000 must be multiplied by 3 percent and whatever the answer must be subtracted from your deductions. So if you earn $375,000 you mulitply $25,000 by 0.3, and you get $750. Say you can take $50,000 in deductions. You must reduce that amount by $750. So you can now take only $49,250 in deductions.

No big deal for now. But later on it could be. Congress needs cash, we’re told, and they’re looking at places to find it, in the sofa cushions of life. This hints to some economists in Washington DC that they could be eying our deductions and taking them away would make home ownership much more expensive.