Taxes. Who pays more, and who pays less?

Most of us (specifically 77%) will have to pay more:

The budget deal passed by the U.S. Senate today would raise taxes on 77.1 percent of U.S. households, mostly because of the expiration of a payroll tax cut, according to preliminary estimates from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington.

More than 80 percent of households with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 would pay higher taxes. Among the households facing higher taxes, the average increase would be $1,635, the policy center said. A 2 percent payroll tax cut, enacted during the economic slowdown, is being allowed to expire as of yesterday.

But the Hollywood elite (who donated heavily to Obama and company) will pay less:

The Senate passed legislation meant to end the “fiscal cliff” crisis in the wee hours of the morning. And it seems Hollywood’s rigorous backing of President Barack Obama and his Democrat peers in the waning months of 2012 paid off.

Section 317 of the freshly approved legislation includes an extension for “special expensing rules for certain film and television productions.” Congress first enacted production tax incentives favorable to the domestic entertainment industry in 2004, and extended them in 2008, but the deal was meant to expire in 2011.

The fiscal cliff deal extends the tax incentives through 2013–even as payroll taxes rise on ordinary Americans.

Lovely.

And naturally, the rich Hollywood paragons of virtue (who would never admit to being “the 1%” they so roundly condemn) are lecturing the rest of us — especially law-abiding people who would never misuse guns —  about the need for gun control. Lest forget that these Constitution haters made billions glamorizing the very thing they condemn, I thought this video was in order:

Despite the obvious hypocrisy, they can make all the gory shoot-em-up films they want. I’m cool with that, and I would never advocate cutting off their constitutional rights in any way.

But I wish they would quit wanting to cut off mine.

Happy New Year!

MORE: The above video may shed some light on why David Gregory might actually thought the gun laws didn’t apply to him. If you’re running around with like-minded people who make violent films about guns (while wanting to ban them), it would be very easy to lose sight of all reality.