Late-night deal averts fiscal cliff
Just as it seemed Congress would close up shop for the year with no deal in place, the Senate reaches an interim agreement.
Updated at 9 a.m. ET Tuesday
The Senate moved the U.S. economy back from the edge of the fiscal cliff early Tuesday morning, voting to avoid imminent tax hikes and spending cuts. But the bipartisan deal could still face stiff challenges in the House of Representatives.
As the hours ticked by on Monday, the last day of 2012, Congressional negotiators still hadn't found a solution to avoid $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts that kick in on Jan. 1. While a deal in the Senate appeared close, the House of Representatives took a break for the holiday with no vote in sight.
The good thing is that the tax part of this mess should be over with soon. For legislators, it now becomes almost easy. Even if the apparent Senate deal doesn't go through, tax rates will go up, and so lawmakers now can come to the rescue when they vote to extend the Bush tax cuts.
The main question is what the nation's wealthy individuals will get taxed at. And judging from news reports, it looks like the marginal income tax rates will rise to 39.6% for individuals making more than $400,000 a year and households making more than $450,000 annually.
Unemployment benefits are likely to get extended for a year and middle-class tax cuts could get continued for five years, Politico reports. The estate tax rates for high-value properties are set to increase.
Once the tax question is settled, then there's the issue of $109 billion in automatic cuts that will hit military and discretionary spending. That's the part holding up negotiations now, and that will likely take weeks to settle out.
And so ends a Congressional session we'd all like to forget. The Huffington Post reports that the 112th Congress is the most unproductive session since the 1940s. President Obama signed only 219 bills passed by this Congress. That's down from 383 bills passed by Congress last year and 460 bills the year before.
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I have always been a Republican, always voted Republican. That is now going to change. What has happened with the Congress is an embarassment to us as Americans. We need to send these self-serving idiots a strong message and vote every one of them out of office. Every voter should vote for anyone other than the incumbent. What a bunch of selfish buffoons. VOTE EM OUT!!!!!!!!!!
Does the Federal Indictment of Grover Norquist happen now?
Does the Federal Indictment of Norquist Pledgers begin now?
Does the repeal and abolishment of the Gramm Leach Bliley Act begin now?
Does the restoration of the Glass Steagall Act begin now?
Do formal investigations of job blockading and alumni collusion begin now?
Do we ban pariah groups like Law Firms and all types of Funds now?
Do we eliminate all Trusts so every American has equal liability and exposure now?
Do we reduce hired-in administration pay to Minimum Wage now and recognize skill again?
It took Olympic effort to avert a Cliff Fall caused by bureaucrats.
I'd rate it a D- minus event.
The markets will go wild tomorrow but should be closed down.
Restore the currency to Main Street, eliminate Wall Street.
Recover AMERICA, do away with collusion and confusion.
While we still can.
Pretty much correct Brutus......Gov. George Wallace called them out on it, back in the 60-70s (?)..
Pointed out the "Tweedle dee, Tweedle dum" mentality of the GOP/DEM's.
Ross Perot gave the Parties a scare also.....
It is very difficult to "keep or retain an honest man in the Congress," for much more then one term...
Repubs or Dems makes little difference, when they become beholden to Special Interest, Lobbies(good or bad) and the almighty dollar that so many worship from the Rich and Elite....
Even though some will do what they can for their electorate, eventually the common voters are forgotten....And the "greater good for Americans in general" goes by the wayside....
Very few, uphold their loyalty and original causes.
What do you think of the Repubs now? How much longer are you going to keep holding your collective noses and voting for this bunch of inept, incompetent, power-grabbing, big gov progressives, just because they have an "R" next to their name? They love to talk about how conservative they are, but when it comes right down to it, their true colors show through. The bill they just passed, with tax increases and more spending, is the polar opposite of basic conservative principles. Are you going to look the other way and give them a pass, yet again?
Please, remember this moment and vote accordingly the very next chance you get. The evidence is overwhelming - the future of the conservative movement does NOT lie with the Repub party. The sooner you figure that out, the sooner we can move forward.
Here's the Deal.....Lost on Earth, is a Happy person, he is going to get a raise like us...
He loves His Country.....And God blesses America...
I think that is the RIGHT attitude to have...Hopefully it will get better for many of you this year..
Have a Happy and Prosperous New year in 2013...
Attitudes are a great and meaningful share of our lives..Makes us who we are,or helps.
All Chinese labor is virtual slavery anyway, so those labor standards that are suppose to exist are entirely bogus. The best thing we could do for China is send all goods made there back with a note saying that until they treat their ppl like humans and not their government wealth machine, no American will buy their stuff. Remember that the Chinese gvt. owns much of the industrial capacity of the country. That is how they control their people.
WHERE'S THE PART WHERE THEY GAVE HOLLYWEIRD 430 MILLION IN TAX BREAKS????? THAT'S HELPING WHO???????????
HIS FRIENDS HIS FAMILY HIS SUPPORTERS BIG UNIONS LIKE STIMULUS AND BAILOUTS????? WHAT A LYING HYPOCRITE?
WHERE'S THE TAX BREAK FOR SMALL BUSINESS AND MIDDLE CLASS? HE JUST RAISED THE PAYROLL TAX YOU DOPES?
YOU WILL SEE TAX HIKE AND LESS MONEY IN YOUR CHECK! HOW THE **** DOES HE GET AWAY WITH THIS ****!
Only 1% of Americans are Millionaires....Are they the ones considered the 1%'ers ??
I thought it took more then that ?
People wanting to blame the President and Congress for our problems....BUT isn't it the CONGRESS that ONLY HAS a 12% approval RATING....?? (I think the worst in recent history?)
And I would have thought, that the CAN had been KICKED to pieces by now...
Dear Citizens of America.
Are we losing our mind?
I truly think that the near collapsed, and lingering hard times of our country economics from the faulty Bush presidency has produced some alarming public dementia that prevents millions of our best citizens to think correctly, so mistakes are frequently made, like the past election of radical, boisterous Tea Party members to The House of Representatives in 2010, and again in 2012! "Created the greatest produced economical chaos, and a lingering socio-political disaster" still seriously impacting our survivor as the Great United States of America. These elected representatives, their continuous perversive negations in passing Bills to help the economy, least to say presently the extraordinary opposition to help balance the Fiscal Budget by asking the very rich to contibute in tax increase after enjoying the Bush tax cut since 2004, getting richer on the back of the middle class! Where is their patriotism? America made all of them very rich! Pay back!
Remember now? During the last elections in 2012, we had a hopeful tea Party candidate that wllifully maneuvered the members in the un-ruling House of Representatives as his command, the guy was aspiring for a big job as our country VP, that was Paul Ryan, the supposly guru, the manuvered of poor Arithmetical Budgets to terminate Medicare, and Social Security as we had known it for many decades!
Is it our state of mental dementia so acute that’s preventing us to acknowledged that Paul Ryan, is a full flesh product of the incoherent Tea Party/Republican amalgamation, presently, and again residing in the House of Representatives after lossing the wanted VP in the last elections? Remmber, Congress still have a dishonorable 15% approval rate. Could this Paul Ryan person have make sound, integral, non-radical, honest decisions as a Vice-President, we don’t think so? Now he has strong spectations to be running as the president of our beaten country with the Tea Party, and the Republican Party in 2016. We hope, America have fully recovered from the disease before November, 2016, to vote full Democratic ticket again, and say one more time a big “ No”, to Paul Ryan wishes to be a president of our USA, that position is already reserved for Hillary Clinton.
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MARKET UPDATE
[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 settled lower by 0.8% after early strength turned into afternoon weakness.
Today's headline event came in the form of Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee. During his remarks, Chairman Bernanke said premature tightening of monetary policy could stall the pace of recovery. This followed weeks of conflicting remarks from FOMC members, which sparked speculation regarding possible changes to the Fed's policy course.
However, ... More
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