I know that I have cut WAY back on my spending.

Just collateral damage. But as long as it´s discount shoppers, Obama cares not.

I´m saving my money to buy guns. And it´s not gonna be from Wal Mart either. Other than that, I´m cutting way back on my spending too.

For those who haven´t yet noticed, when WalMart [IIRC, they dropped the hyphen] runs those TV ads touting their low prices, it means you´ll find higher prices in the stores.

They also have phony "roll-back" labels on their shelves. For example, I´ve seen them raise an item´s price from $1.25 to $1.78 for a week or two [no doubt knowing they´ll have much lower sales for a while], then "cut" it to $1.48 and put out big "Rollback!" signage.

And higher prices per package aren´t the whole story. You may also find the package contents count reduced and the price raised. One example, 200-count house-brand tissues cut to 182-count [9 percent], plus the box price went up. 25% overall price hikes aren´t uncommon. Keep an eye out for these tricks. Speak up.

If WalMart is hurting, things are getting bad.

I walked through a JC Penney the other day, and the place was almost empty. The stock was skimpy, too.

Didn´t the democrats say it would only affect the rich, I guess in Obama´s mind everyone is rich and should be taxed.

Walmart has really been raising prices recently. On many, many items they are higher than our local Kroger stores. In some cases, Food Lion is lower too. As with all stores, the shopper cannot assume that Walmart is the lower price option because in many cases that is not true.

I´ve been avoiding WalMart since they´ve started playing ball with Obama. It´s not Sam Walton´s company anymore.

WalMart simply doesn´t have the best prices anymore. Why would I endure a slog through that beast for toilet paper when I can buy it at the grocery store for the same price?

WalMart is an avoid at all costs store for our family. My wife finds the stores depressing. I find the stuff on the selves to be Chinese junk. Also, never buy meat or veggies there...they are sourced from suspect countries. And their prices for everything else are not that good. Rather go to Target.

Regardless of one´s opinion of WalMart, we need to focus on the real story here, that WalMart and the dollar stores "are bracing for a rise in the payroll tax to take a bigger bite from the paychecks of shoppers already dealing with elevated unemployment." (FTA) 0bama is destroying our economy and this country.

DOW was up 342 points on the news...

How can this be? Recovery summer part 5 is coming up. We have been told that things are looking up. Things are better things are improving.

WalMart does feel like a cheap junk store. Their employees so often look miserable. #1, me too. I think people would be surprised to know how many technically well-off people have cut WAY back on a lot of expenses. I am truly following a proper budget for the first time.

I wonder why, in stories dealing with this issue, writers almost never never refer to the Social Security "tax" but instead always call it the payroll tax???

To be quite accurate, the payroll tax really refers to the part of the contribution that the employer makes to the employee´s total contribution. It is if you will, a tax on the employer´s payroll, hence the payroll tax.

Writers should want readers to understand that at retirement, this contribution they are making today to Social Security will provide a large part of their income. Indeed, some folks live almost entirely on this entitlement and they should be proud that they are helping to provide for their future security.... and calling their contribution a tax misses the point and misleads.

One of the reasons this country has been allowed to go into the financial hole so deeply is that we have so many financially illiterate citizens and calling contributions to Social Security, that will be returned with interest (and likely much more), continues to perpetuate this untruth and does nothing to educate readers.

This is not a political issue and not one of semantics, but one of dollars and cents and common sense. People need to understand what is a tax and what is not otherwise Barack Obama can have them believing anything.

The nearest WalMart to me is 12 miles away and it is a DUMP. Not worth going there for me.

Why is it called a payroll tax INCREASE when it was suspended for a time, to be re-instated at a later date. The later date is here. Are they trying to get something going with calling it a tax?

I notice when we´re out on Friday evening to eat and go grocery shopping, the parking lots of restaurants like Olive Garden, Outback - the ones you always find in a row together - are packed. Of course this is season which may account for a lot of it.

One reason might be they cant get any ammo or guns to sell