americans. they have no safety net left. also, the payroll tax is going to go up. you know, people keep talking about this as a slope and not a big deal. it takes a while for the full impact fob felt. we ransom numbers and to give you a sense of perspective on this, a family with two working parentses making $82,000 a year. all the tax hikes they experience, it will add $6,000 a year to the tax bill. that s not nothing. that hurts people in the middle. in addition, we get the consumer confidence stuff. according to a recent study, the fiscal cliff gridlock in washington has taken a tol. a new survey by the conference board shows levels in the first half of december falling to the lowest level since august. an unexpectedly sharp decline. the survey indicates that consumer anxiety stems from worries about the fiscal future and not from the current state of the economic.