Fiscal Cliff Deal Passed By Congress After Republicans Cave

[UCmeNdc]

Congress passed a hard-won deal to ease large portions of the "fiscal cliff."


Republicans were upset the deal did not have cuts.

"We not only need to grow the economy but we also have to address the fundamental causes of our debts and deficits, and that's out-of-control spending, obligations that we have not got the financial wherewithal the meet," said Rep. Dave Camp, (R-Mich.) the top Republicans on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.


Democrats also were pleased that for the first time in decades Republicans signed onto a measure that leaves taxes higher this year than the year before.

"This legislation breaks the iron barrier that for far too long has prevented additional tax revenues from the very wealthiest," said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) "It raises $620 billion in revenue by achieving the president's goal of asking the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to pay more while protecting 98 percent of families. That's right -- that's what it does. I want to emphasize this contrary to propaganda coming from the other side -- it prevents 98 percent of businesses from another tax increase."



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/01/fiscal-cliff-deal-passed-_n_2394022.html

[lunatica]

1. Not anywhere near perfect, but much better than I expected

"This legislation breaks the iron barrier that for far too long has prevented additional tax revenues from the very wealthiest," said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) "It raises $620 billion in revenue by achieving the president's goal of asking the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to pay more while protecting 98 percent of families..."

That's quite a feat with the worst and most recalcitrant do nothing Congress in history.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Not a perfect deal

but probably as good as can be hoped for. Until we have a fully Democratic-controlled Congress and WH to work with, we're going to have to accept some cruddy deals. Thankfully, this deal turned out to be the least cruddy of them all- and actually not all that bad considering most of the elements of the plan. I just want to see the Dems and President Obama to hold fast to their pledge to not negotiate over the debt ceiling and let the Republicans destroy their remaining credibility over it. IMHO the Dems and President Obama just need to educate people about what the debt ceiling is, why it's important it gets raised (and may even throw in some arguments about maybe why it should be eliminated completely) and invite the Republicans to try to refute it and make themselves look insane by demanding huge unpopular changes in entitlements in exchange for doing something that they've done over and over again without much, if any, fanfare. The best thing that we can do for the country, however, is put a lot of effort into retaking the House during the next cycle.