Free Republic

(Reuters) - The White House and congressional lawmakers have reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that would delay harsh spending cuts by two months, Obama administration officials said on Monday. President Barack Obama called Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who both signed off on the deal, one source said. The agreement includes a balance of spending cuts and revenue increases to pay for the delay in the automatic spending cuts that would go into effect without a deal by lawmakers.

ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC: "If I could just put it this way: the White House is taking the Republicans to the cleaners in negotiation on this. This is a huge win for the White House, if they can get the votes on this. And that's why Schumer is coming out, saying that there's going to be strong Democratic support here. This is a big win for the Democrats, no question about it. A big win for America. This underscores the vote on November 6th, there's no question about it."

All elected officials who were defeated or resigned are not legal to vote!!!READ THECONSTITUTION ( even if you don't read the tyrannical bills.) Those who are are not sworn in are history and cannoy vote for McConnell's "cave in". Please leave our buildings!!Happy new year idiots.

President Obama and Senate leaders struck a bipartisan agreement late Monday to let income taxes rise sharply for the first time in two decades, fulfilling Obama’s promise to raise taxes on the rich and avoiding the worst effects of the “fiscal cliff.”The agreement, brokered by Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), primarily targets taxpayers who earn more than $450,000 per year, raising their rates for wages and investment profits. At the same time, the deal would protect more than 100 million households earning less than $250,000 a year from income tax increases that are scheduled to...

The “fiscal cliff” is a massive failure of presidential leadership. The tedious and technical negotiations are but a subplot in a larger drama. Government can no longer fulfill all the promises it has made to various constituencies. Some promises will be reduced or disavowed. Which ones? Why? Only the president can pose these questions in a way that starts a national conversation over the choices to be made, but doing so requires the president to tell people things they don’t want to hear. That’s his job: to help Americans face unavoidable, if unpleasant, realities. Barack Obama has refused to play...

<p>Washington (CNN) – House GOP sources told CNN the House is increasingly unlikely to vote on any fiscal cliff package until New Year's Day, after the midnight deadline and after tax rates have technically already gone up.</p> <p>The reason is partly about process, but the benefit is political.</p>

Republican Sen. Rob Portman on Monday called on President Barack Obama to rescind government pay raises—including his own—saying they are out of line at a time the country is struggling to get its debt under control. … Under the executive order issued on Thursday, most members of Congress would receive a $900 annual raise, pushing their salary to $174,900. House Speaker John Boehner and the leaders of each party in each house would gain $1,100 a year. Vice President, Biden would get the biggest bump, with an increase of more than $6,000 to $231,900. …

Right now the political landscape is grim for Republicans–and in the short term, thanks to the so-called fiscal cliff, things may get grimmer still. But moments like these can pass, often quicker than we think. And next year may turn out to be one in which the pernicious effects of the Affordable Care Act–aka ObamaCare–really begin to kick in, from higher premiums to the loss of employer-based health insurance to the start of enrollment in insurance exchanges. It will become more and more clear to the public what a nightmarish law the Affordable Care Act actually is. “The administration is...

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts. When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush increased taxes in return for spending cuts—cuts that never ultimately came—they did so at ratios of 3:1 and 2:1. “In 1982, President Reagan was promised $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes,” Americans for Tax Reform says of those two incidents...

Link to how they voted.

“We’re extremely disappointed. There was no need for this drama on New Year’s Ever because the House completed its work last August,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) “[This] is a cynical attempt on the part of the President to ensure that he has complete Democrat control, House of Representatives and Senate, in the final term.”

Obamacare contains twenty new or higher taxes. Five of the taxes hit for the first time on January 1. In total, Americans face a net $1 trillion tax hike for the years 2013-2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The five major Obamacare taxes taking effect on January 1 are as follows: The Obamacare Medical Device Tax: Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. Obamacare imposes a new 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. In addition to killing small business...

There are too many metaphors here applicable to the Senate’s 89-8 passage of a “fiscal cliff” bill in the middle of the night (around 2 a.m. this morning). The bill raised taxes by over $600 billion, in addition to Obamacare taxes already coming on line, yet the Senators can claim it was a massive tax cut because the vote took place after midnight, so technically the Bush tax cuts already had expired.

There’s no official agreement, so everything you read here may turn out to be nonsense, but it appears that the misfits in Washington have reached a deal on the fiscal cliff. It seems as though my prediction about the outcome was correct. Not that this makes me happy.First, the good news.………Oh, wait, there isn’t any.Now for the bad news.The top tax rate will increase to 39.6 percent for entrepreneurs, investors, small business owners, and other “rich” taxpayers making more than $400,000 ($450,000 for married couples). This is Obama’s big victory. He gets his class-warfare trophy.The double tax on dividends and...

By a vote of 89 to 8 to approve a fiscal deal, the Senate demonstrated that President Obama surely is the most incompetent if not counterproductive deal-maker in an era that requires a good one. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden found the middle ground, with McConnell sneaking in a few gems. -snip- This is what compromise looks like. -snip- The vote once again shows that right-wing bullies like the Heritage Action Fund that threatened to “score” the vote (i.e., give lawmakers a demerit and set them up for primary challenges) are powerless in the face of real-world...

Just received an email from my accountant informing of tax increase on ALL American taayers.

The House should just adjourn. The president can no longer threaten them with calling them back into session since they're back on Thursday anyway and the Senate cannot prevent them from adjourning since the current session is over in less than the Constitutional three day requirement where the Senate can object. If the House adjourns, the Senate bill dies and cannot act again on any tax bill until it receives something, anything from the House. And all the republicas senators who voted for McConnell's "compromise" bill can reap the political rewards of voting to increase taxes while getting nothing for...

The US Senate passed a bill last night to avoid the fiscal abyss. Actually, it just bypasses it and does nothing about putting our disastrous fiscal house in order. Here is the actual bill in all its gory details: 118551686-Mat-12564 The Senate bill raises income tax rates for those taxpayers with incomes more than $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. These higher income taxpayers will also pay higher rates on investment income, with rates on dividends and capital gains rising from 15 percent to 20 percent. Add the 3.8 percent Obamacare surcharge on...

The White House issued a "fact sheet" statement Tuesday declaring the fiscal cliff agreement a victory, though the House has yet to vote on the measure. "At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy," the statement says. "For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue.

It's hard to rundown all the spending/tax hike ramifications since they passed the damn thing at 2am on New Years Day but the politics of the deal are quite clear. WH tells colleague Ed Henry Obama broke R's tax pledge. Calls it "1 of the most consequential policy achievements of the last couple decades And what did the GOP get for this? Nothing. I doubt the House GOP has the stones to decline this invitation to sign their own death warrant. But don't worry guys...we'll get those spending cuts in the debt ceiling deal! This was the key surrender that...