With a spine made of overcooked spaghetti, Republicans rolled over and voted for Obama's "solution" to the fiscal cliff. The tax bill will punish the successful, continue to pay people not to work in the Obama "recovery" and allowed Pres Obama to fly back to Hawaii despite the fact the debt continues to climb and the debt ceiling will be hit in a few weeks. 40:1 ration on tax increases VS spending cuts and R's went for the deal. WTF????????
Congress approved a plan to end Washington’s long drama over the “fiscal cliff” late Tuesday after House Republicans surrendered to President Obama’s demand to let taxes rise on the nation’s richest households.The House voted 257 to 167 to send the measure to Obama for his signature; the vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation.
House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) and most other top GOP leaders took no public position on the measure and offered no public comment before the 10:45 p.m. vote. Boehner declined even to deliver his usual closing argument, leaving House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) to defend the measure as the “largest tax cut in American history.”
The bill will indeed shield millions of middle-class taxpayers from tax increases set to take effect this month. But it also will let rates rise on wages and investment profits for households pulling in more than $450,000 a year, marking the first time in more than two decades that a broad tax increase has been approved with GOP support.
The measure also will keep benefits flowing to 2 million unemployed workers on the verge of losing their federal checks. And it will delay for two months automatic cuts to the Pentagon and other agencies that had been set to take effect Wednesday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...46f_story.html