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BREAKING

House Clears Fiscal Cliff Bill

Major fissures among Republicans in final vote

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by David Mark

Editor-in-Chief t

Image: AP.

The House has cleared a fiscal cliff bill to stave off tax hike for tens of millions of Americans but is at best a short-term fix. The 257-167 House vote will cap days of frantic activity on Capitol Hill.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation quickly. It only got this far after Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) held a series meetings with Republican lawmakers outlining options. One high-risk strategy under consideration would have involved amending the bill and sending it back to the Senate. But it would likely have been DOA on the other side of the Capitol.

Such an outcome could make the House GOP the public face of a failed effort to avert automatic tax hikes and spending cuts and possibly cause a public outcry as taxes on every American worker would jump, reports The Washington Post.

The agreement, approved by the Senate in a highly unusual New Year's morning vote, primarily targets taxpayers who earn more than $450,000 per year, raising their rates for wages and investment profits. At the same time, it would protect more than 100 million households earning less than $250,000 a year from income tax increases scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

The deal came together barely three hours before the midnight deadline, after negotiators cleared two final hurdles involving the estate tax and automatic spending cuts set to affect the Pentagon and other federal agencies this week.

Though the final vote was hardly in doubt, it still provided surprises. Speaker Boehner voted for the bill but Cantor opposed it. So did House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (WI), the 2012 vice-presidential nominee, voted for the measure.

Politix reporting and via The Washington Post.
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • PNWest
    !
    This is an example of the democrats putting the country ahead of the party. They could have easily refused to compromise and run the clock out. The GOP would have been blamed and the dems would have been in a stronger negotiating position with the Bush tax cuts expired. Instead Obama compromised for the good of the country and it appears that the GOP will take the deal. I'm kind of surprised as most of the GOP is so out of touch with reality they thought they were going to win this. Obama out maneuvered them and could have easily humiliated them by letting the tax cuts expire then putting up a clean bill to lower taxes for 98% of us that the GOP would have been unable to block without destroying the party..
  • View all 22 replies >
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    RobertJHarsh
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    Boehner, you're out of the game man. You just irked off more republicans (like me) whom will stay home in 2016 and not vote for Kasich/Jindel (yeah...we know the next plan) so the homosexuals, angry white women and gimmedat welfare class will vote Democrat and the House will lose more seats.

    Oh speaking of losing those House seats, enjoy your majority until 2014.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
    !
    @NormalFlora What? When did I become a racist by pointing out the core of the Democratic party? You just register on this site today?
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix I dunno man. What's left of the GOP is jam packed with neocons and xitian fundies. Just about every moderate/conservative was ran out by Boehner, Rove, and Bush about 5 to 6 years ago.
  • jessejaymes
    !
    I have to wonder how much more the gays can demand? They will have marriage rights by 2014 in all but a handful of states and frankly if I had to live in the bible belt I'd commit suicide and I'm straight so maybe they should move if they live there since marriage rights is the least of their problems in the BB. As for angry women I don't know too many angry women other than the lesbian ones which they will always be angry about something. Regardless. But those cradle to grave welfare do not vote partner. They couldn't care less who is president. they care when the check comes. Nothing more.
  • View all 33 replies >
  • jessejaymes
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    This is all much ado about nothing. The tax hikes won't even pay for a single year of spending. And when they get down to the spending "cuts" both parties will attach riders to the cut bill that increases pork barrel spending. RE-ELECT NOBODY. 2014
  • FollowTheMoney
    !
    Such a incredibly simple solution. Too bad so many are so afraid to think for them selves. So many Americans are so detached from reality, They actually believe what they are told by the politicians and the Media's pundits. They actually believe we need these a-holes.
  • jessejaymes
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    @FollowTheMoney Think about what most people think about Lawyers. Then realize that most all of Congress are Lawyers. And yet they keep electing Lawyers. Idiots.
  • Thegrif
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    The tax hike will only operate the fed gov't for 8 days, it is meaningless as a cure of anything.
    Meaningless except for something for Obama to say he did and for Obama lovers to be happy about, till they realize it gets us nothing.
    Fools
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  • View all 11 replies >
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    The welfare class are still going to get their checks. They won't have to show up for work Monday morning like the rest of us. However, they will still get paid. Congress, the Senate, and yes even the president will still get paid. Who will be out income? The American people. We are the ones that must pay for the welfare do nothing class, the political class, all the moochers and freeloaders. You and I, that's who. We're the ones that get stuck with the tab. On top of all this, ol' weak kneed Boehner is the one delivering the dagger to the backside of Americans. He should not be reelected. Not after this. NO, NOT EVER AFTER THIS.

    obama wins again. He'll get his wish and gut American like a trout. Once America is through being hollowed out, will there be anything left to salvage? RobertJHarsh might have the right answer. It's time to start learning Mandarin.
  • ConserveUSA
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    The hardworking Americans are being punished, so we can pay for moochers and what I call "Welfare Mongers". I know quite a few people who were on Welfare and doing for themselves, which I am VERY PROUD OF BY GOD, but there are many who mooch off the system. President Obama was a Socialist Activist and he does not know a damn thing about being President! Obama wants every American to live his way and his level of thinking. I say HELL NO!!!
  • armed_liberal
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    Social Security and Medicare are not programs for "moochers". The elderly that paid into those programs all of their lives deserve better than the crap sandwich the Republicans are trying to give them. Bottom line, grandmas social security will be cut by Republicans to pay for the Bush wars and tax cuts for the wealthy.
  • armed_liberal
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    @ConserveUSA
    Check into it, thd Republicans wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare. The Great Generation are your "moochers". Shameful.
  • View all 9 replies >
  • armed_liberal
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    Socialist Bill? Not raising taxes on the middle class is Socialist? You need to find a dictionary and look up the definition of Socialist.
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
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    @armed_liberal Wait a couple of years. In 2014, that 450/400 will be dropped to 300/250 when the spending doesn't stop. And then in 2016, another fiscal cliff will happen making it 250/200 and then to 150/100? Also barely half of this country pays taxes in the first place. Get the idea, yet?
  • PoliticalSpice
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    @armed_liberal Getting any of those who lump liberals and socialist together to look up or understand the difference between those words is, well I won't say impossible, but about the same odds as being struck by lightening, in a desert, on a clear day without a cloud in the sky...

    happy new year to ya.
  • PoliticalSpice
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    Just wondering, who is your congressman, and how did he finally vote?

    Happy new years to ya, especially when Jan 20th rolls around...
  • armed_liberal
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    @PoliticalSpice
    It's kinda like comparing Obama to Hitler,(a common tea party rally cry). Hitler invaded other countries and exterminated dissidents, Jews and foreigners in Germany. That sounds a lot more like Bush than Obama.
  • View all 9 replies >
  • PoliticalSpice
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    I couldn't agree more. A win fir pbama, but we lose the chance to seriously tackle military soending. He'll probably give a lot back just to get a debt ceiling increase that he could have pushed through withou them on the basis of the 14th amnd.
  • Keyjo
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    @PoliticalSpice
    We live in a Plutocracy. The industrial military complex is one of the biggest players of the Plutocracy. The Republican President, Eisenhower, warned us to avoid such as he left the White House. Instead, we embraced it ala Reagan's Star Wars, Cheney's mercenaries, etc........
  • PoliticalSpice
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    @Keyjo Disagree, the embrace happened long before reagan, and dems embraced it just as much. LBJ's embrace of naplam got him so hot he left office over it...
  • Keyjo
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    @Keyjo
    But I should add, that I think Cheney's was the most despicable of all. He actually conspired to start a war in which he made millions, if not billions, from the shedding of American blood. I still contend that he should be in prison.
  • View all 10 replies >
  • PoliticalSpice
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    Too bad those traitors didn't make themselves known when they were boting for war on itaq, a lot of suffering and lives would have been spared.
  • PoliticalSpice
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    @ConserveUSA and the tens of thousands of civilians and innocent people murdered and maimed, and the folks that were tortured in violation of international law. Saddam Hussein may have needed to be ousted, but bush, chenney and rumsfeld need to be tried as war criminal, after being hung for treason for putting u.s. troops in harms way by launching a war based on lies...
  • View all 6 replies >
  • RedFloppyShoes
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    1:41 cuts to taxes.

    Abhorrent doesn't even begin to express how I feel about this deal.

    I am watching the voting record of every candidate that votes for this deal and I will be broadcasting the name of every person who votes for more taxes on the American public in a time when most people can't afford it. 77% of all Ameicans will pay higher taxes in 2013.
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    " I am watching the voting record of every candidate that votes for this deal and I will be broadcasting the name of every person who votes for more taxes on the American public"

    If it makes you feel better to copy and paste public information into some social media sites, then knock yourself out.
  • RedFloppyShoes
    !
    @Dan_Tien I work in radio and have a talk show. I'm not some keyboard jockey who wishes he could make a difference. But thanks for being c
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    @RedFloppyShoes Listening to you drone off a list of names sounds like a tremendously exciting radio program. I've heard lots of broadcast "personalities" who claim to "make a difference" by flapping their gums, yet here we are! You are welcome for the condescension, since you are apparently in a position where you get to dish it out without getting served. There is no telephone cut-off switch here to make sure you always get the last word, or maybe you ARE just some keyboard jockey. If you really are "kind of a big deal", why are you here?
  • View all 7 replies >
  • u
    Grubby
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    I am afraid that you might be more right than anyone would believe. I fully expect Obama to use Executive Orders to try to make himself an effective Dictator for life. We know he hates our Constitution and current government structure. He could never get the required constitutional amendment passed by enough states, the military would not support his coup, so we will see how far he can push is Executive Orders. You know he wants to be Emperor.
  • wangotango
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    @WilliamWallace I hate to agree but the truth is the banning of guns and the possession of one a criminal offense could be closer then we could imagine.....
  • View all 22 replies >
  • u
    Belin
    !
    Our family is going to have a hard time with what most would consider insignificant. I also don't the the inheretence tax should have been increased. 40% of my inheritance taken is going to really hurt us.
  • MarkJM
    !
    People should actually look at this bill, it doesn't do jack to prevent tax increases for the lower and middle income earners. This is just a BS pat on the back to CONgress so they can think they got something done (when they should've got something done a LONG time ago). CONgress: What a Crock....
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
    !
    It passed...we're screwed. I am officially out of the voting machine. I never again will vote in any election. They just passed the largest tax increase on the people who could have fixed the recession and created jobs. US is done...stick a fork in her...peace out!

    On a side note, everyone in China is laughing at the world's largest economy.
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
    !
    You mean Comrade Soetoro (he's a communist, not a national socialist). But for real...no more registering to vote...no more voting. Done. Neither party represents me and at this point. Republicans just tied a noose around their neck and jumped off the chair. They are finished as a party. They just ensured they will LOSE the House in 2014.

    They just voted for a bill where the "permanent tax cuts" were just made for people whom don't pay them in the first place! Welfare gimmedat trash and communists are the winners today. Remember when I said back in November by 2016 we'll have 65% on welfare...I can almost guarantee it now.

    My only real question is what will the one-party state look line in 2020?...and will I be able to live here without being sent to a re-education camp?
  • armed_liberal
    !
    @RobertJHarsh
    You two are hillarious! Adolf Hitler would invade countries, kill dissidents and deport foreigners (kinda sounds Republican). The stuff you are smoking isn't even legal in Washington or Colorado.
  • Dan_Tien
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    @RobertJHarsh You must have a very short memory. The Republican party was so widely disliked by the end of the George W. Bush administration that many candidates didn't even want to put "Republican" on their campaign posters. Some went with "GOP", others pretended to create a new party they called the "Tea Party" just to distance themselves from the bad press. But here you are, acting as if this is the first time that the Grand Old Party has let you down. Go ahead, stop voting. That will show them.
  • jessejaymes
    !
    This is not about Obama wins. This is Washington D.C. grandstanding to the American Public and manufacturing a "crisis" that came about by both the GOP and Dems passing a bill to bring about this crisis. Smoke screening as usual.
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