Ummmm, it is an election year and during this time period, there is a lot of angst among voters in the US and you will typically see a slow down in spending.
I am not political. I really dislike both parties. As a capitalist, I vote almost exclusively with my wallet.
Just to point out to you, the Democrat leadership has already said they want to take back the middle class tax relief passed by the republicans. Our household pays over 20K a year in income taxes (last year 24K). Take the tax break away and it will be over 30K a year in income taxes - then you add on the state income tax and if you want to nit pick, the state sales tax. On top of that, we pay the 10% to our church tithe tax (which I DO NOT resent!) and a tripling in our healthcare costs tax (which I DO resent)..... We then have the 4 (5 if you count the daughter in law) children tax. All 19 to 26.
Those taxes include: 3 in college tuition/books/fees we are paying for Tax... and the misc sundry taxes of the 2 Children living at home. Then you have the 4 children on the cell phone bill tax and the 4 children on the car insurance bill tax and the maintaining all those cars tax (that I own) and the misc rent for an apartment for the college student that had to go to school across the state cause mom said it was OK tax... and the family welfare tax for the married child that just graduated and needs a part time job income subsidized to pay rent/electric/water/gas money while the daughter in law (his wife) is in college driving 4 hours round trip to get to class because she didn't want to go to the Local college to get her masters....well...you get the picture. Thank God he just got a full time job and MAYBE that tax will go away. Lots of taxes on the middle class already kind of thing.
So you can imagine the angst amongst those who actually have to pay the taxes.....these are typically the middle and upper middle class people that fund the rest of everything the wealthy & corporations don't cover so the ain't got nothing crowd can sit home, collect EBT/Subsidized Housing/Free Healthcare/Free Education (which almost all fail to take advantage of) etc. and that doesn't include the people that don't have to pay any Federal taxes but aren't eligible for the above but think it's ok that our family has to pay for everyone else that the rich and corps don't pay for... kind of thing.
Just sayin, kind of makes you want to wait and see how the election plays out before you spend what you have... as our family is not spending right now either beyond the bare minimum of what we need to buy either and if the Democrats are elected... we won't have a choice but to prepare financially for what they always do....(always excludes Pres. Clinton whom I liked, but he was reasonable)
Cheers
