Response to Mr. Eric Olenick’s piece in the Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 “Letters to the Editor”:

I’m not sure who is the “low information voter” here. The “tax increase” Mr. Olenick refers to was a rollback in the employee Social Security withholding rate enacted by Congress a full two years ago; it went from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. 

Since then, it has been extended twice and was set to expire at the end of  2012.

The purpose of this tax relief was to put more money into people’s paychecks to help our struggling economy. It was always meant to be temporary. 

The latest tax package just passed by the Republican controlled House reverts that rate back to the original 6.2 percent, and it averted the tax hike that was facing every single working American.

This  cannot be viewed as a tax hike implemented by Obama when all along it was temporary tax relief.

— Tom Koldeway

Anchorage