Whose Tax Policy?

At the end of 2013, many U.S. citizens learned that they were going to pay more income tax than ever before. Social Security, funded largely through the FICA tax, took a bigger percentage of paychecks. Income taxes increased. Tom Herman, writing for The Wall Street Journal, noted that there was also

an additional 0.9% Medicare tax on wages, other compensation and self-employment income.

Taxes went up a bit, and deductions - people's ability to shelter some of their wages from taxes - went down a bit. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, career-age people are paying income tax on their healthcare expenditures:

Many people under 65 with large medical bills will discover they can't deduct as much as they could a year ago.

But whose tax policy is this? Many voters blame Obama, but that may be a bit oversimplified. Congress had a hand in these matters as well.