If Obama decides to call the Republican’s bluff and allow the taxes to go back up for 100% of tax payers, there are going to be a lot of unhappy Republicans too. What a lot of people don’t realize is that if the move to keep 98% of people who earn below $250,000 at current levels succeeds, even the 2% will not have an increase on the first $250,000 of income. Thus if a person earns $300,000. The increase of I think about 4.5% would mean an increase in taxes of $2,250, not a terribly painful amount for someone earning that much.