Posted on 01/01/2013 8:36:34 PM PST by GVnana
The Congress that convened two years ago under the war cries of the tea party is slowly coming to an end with a Champagne-less whimper on New Years Day 2013.
The House voted late Tuesday evening, in a rare holiday session, to pass a fiscal cliff bill brokered without the involvement of the GOP majority and with far less than half of their votes.
The bill (HR 8) was amended by the Senate in the early morning hours on an 89-8 vote, carrying language crafted over the holiday weekend by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The 257-167 roll call in the humbled House concluded close to 11 p.m., with 172 Democratic votes and only 85 Republicans, fewer of their own conference than GOP leaders hoped for perhaps, but more than enough to clear the necessary majority to send the legislation to President Barack Obamas desk.
Am I having a nightmare, or what? Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio could be heard saying on the House floor, perhaps in jest. Boehner voted for the measure. Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California and Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam of Illinois all voted against it. Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., who has largely remained quiet during the debate over the last few weeks, voted for the legislation.
I am no longer a libertarian. Abortion and weak on Iran drove me out. You can read my page or just figure out what the words mean.
But thanx for playing.
In 4 years we will respond to republicans like we respond to Ron Paul here. More and more freepers see the Moderate Party as not meeting their interests and in fact being detrimental to the country. When you wake up to reality you’ll be ready to jump ship.
Bad law. Sometimes creative inaction is required.
/johnny
I know who my slavers are the news media (democrat party) and the democrat party. the media creates the reality we live in .until people realize that they are not waking up to reality.
for example since the election the media has been creating this fake “fiscal cliff” bs. there was no cliff it was all a scare tactic but everyone was talking about and congressmen voting on it like if it was reality. If you thought this cliff was real then you too were in the matrix
Not the issue we were discussing. You don’t defend republican actions by telling me how bad the media and the dems are.
Off to work to participate as part of the 53%.
Happy new year. Log live the republicans moderates!!!
So it begins. Still no pay envelopes going out from this desk on Friday.
/johnny
bs , even with the media ‘s fiscall cliff 2/3 of Repulicans in the House voted against this bill. democrats own the presidency , the media , the Senate , and a lot of democrats in the house and you blame all republicans for what democrats did. without democrats this bill would not have passed.
Democrat congresses created 99% of the government we have including medicare and social security. Democrats want to take away your individual rights, right to owning anything , they want the government to own everytyhing and so to be all powerful, you don’t see the threat and all many of you do is blame the GOP as the media wants
Your support is ironic given your tagline.
You got yours. Great. My grandkids will have to pay for it.
This might not suck as much as we think. There is a thought that that extending the Bush tax cuts for MOST Americans is a good thing - the Dems would of never done it.
Spending cuts need to be done and we did lose there. But I see no reason to beat up ourselves and to try not spin this as win for the Reps.
I mean really, the Dems fell for the Rep play and extended the Bush Tax Cuts on the middle class while Obama raised the payroll tax on the poor as well as all Americans.
May not be true if you add all the pluses and minuses. You are spared the AMT tax in 2013, your tax on dividends and cap gains do not go up and even better they are now permanent rates, and your estate will not pay 55% death tax over just $1 million in assets. Don’t we all hope to accumulate a nice nest egg and pass it on to our children? Sans this deal ALL OF THOSE TAXES would have gone up on Jan 1, 2013.
Interesting take, but I don’t feel that much better knowing that MY payroll taxes go up as well.
I do feel a bit of revenge that the ignoramuses that voted for the moron in the white house will be hit by them, too. A bit.....
Please note that the payroll tax reduction was a “temporary” thing, pushed for political reasons prior to election.
My honest opinion is that overall the FC bill is good for the middle class who tries to be financially prudent. The spending side was made worse, not better, but hoping GOP will not cave in during the upcoming debt limit debate.
Spending and debt are directly related and relevant. Expiring Bush tax cuts was a bit tangential to spending.
It's not a good bill and we'll never get a good one till we get rid of the E-GOP and replace them ALL with fiscally responsible adults. Or is that an oxymoron for congresspets?!
I don’t make enough money to have to worry about dividends and capital gains. The economy is too crappy for that. I live check-to-check and have seen my real income decline by approximately 20 percent since Zero took office.
My ‘estate’ as it presently stands is a modest house, two cars, no second property and a family that loves me.
Yet the government sees fit to take even more of my hard-earned, with the almost full agreement of the party I, until recently, supported.
Fixed
There is no tax increase for you in this bill. Please note that the 2% reduction in FICA tax was a temporary thing in previous law, was effective for only a short time to act as a temporary stimulus. Now the rate goes back to normal 6.2%. It is not a real tax increase by any standard.
Without this bill your income tax rates would have been higher, since the Bush tax cuts were never permanent and scheduled to expire in 2012.
With your help, Obama got elected, GOP lost seats in Senate and House. Keep up the good work /Sarc
with my help?
I am calling ABUSE on that offensive statement
Obama was helped by the liberal-moderate Republicans that were nominated more than anything. The lack of a conservative message did more damage than anything. “My name is not Obama” was never a winning strategy.
They were extended permanently, something Republicans wanted but couldn't do in the 10 years since they originally passed, The two prior passes of them 2003 and 2010 both had expiration dates, and yes, were unpaid for which is part of the reason the first run of them expired in the first place, and the AMT fix too. And some of the spending is temporary.
Republicans had no chance at beating O, or at least many here seeing them as beating him, at this, because they had very scrambled messages.
First it was about blocking tax increases, yet they were not blocking automatically timed tax increases by killing House bills, Jan 1 this became apparent as that was the official day taxes went up.
Then it was about deficits, and about spending. So they opposed passing these tax cuts because of deficits yet opposed any tax increases so were against tax cut extensions?
Rush talks about ‘low information voters’
But what information?? That is why most of us knew the outcome ahead of time.
Lastly, this was only made possible by Bohner putting the bill up for a vote, and they House Rs will vote him back in tomorrow. All the NOs were Kabuki. It was just a show.
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