10:45 p.m.: The House passes the Fiscal Cliff bill, after a solid day of hand-wringing
11:25 p.m.: Obama wearily speaks to reporters regarding the deal made, after signing the bill.
11:32 p.m.: Obama plots his trip back to Hawaii. “My work is done here,” he was probably saying to himself as he boarded Air Force One.
House is currently voting on Fiscal Cliff legislation. It’s like watching grass grow. It’s mesmerizing. (In case you’re wondering, though there were some rumbles of changing things earlier, it’s a straight vote on the Senate legislation.)
UPDATE: The bill passed. Image has been updated to show the moment where it hit a majority.
Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor told reporters after a two-hour closed-door meeting Tuesday with his GOP lawmakers that he did not support the bill.
He said House leaders were looking for “the best path forward” and that no decisions had been made.
The Senate passed the measure early Tuesday by a sweeping 89-8 vote. House passage of the measure would send it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The bill would increase taxes on family income exceeding $450,000 and delay across-the-board spending cuts for two months.
Side note: The Congressional Budget Office looked over the bill and found it added $4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
AP: Early Tuesday morning the US Senate passed a deal to avert the ‘fiscal cliff.’ The legislation will now move to the House of Representatives where a vote is expected before Wednesday.
The White House-backed deal raises taxes on incomes of more than $400,000 for individuals and on incomes of more than $450,000 for couples. The measure also temporarily blocks spending cuts for two months.
Who wants to bet the House finds a way to screw this up?
Senate Democratic aide: White House and GOP reach deal on fiscal cliff.
Some details on the deal, from CBS:
Tax rates: current tax rates will be extended for all wage earners making below $400,000 and couples making below $450,000. This was a key concession for both Republicans and Democrats. Democrats wanted the threshold for tax increases to rest at $250,000 and Republicans didn’t want marginal tax rates to increase for anyone.
The estate tax: it was set to increase from rom 35 percent to 55 percent in 2013. Instead, the compromise sets the new rate at 40 percent with the first $5 million worth of property exempt from being taxed.
Capital gains tax: Capital gains and dividend tax rates will increase from 15 to 20 percent.
Alternative Minimum Tax: a permanent fix to the tax that would hit middle class families “Doc Fix”: doctors will be shielded from a massive reimbursement gap for treating Medicare patients.
Unemployment benefits: unemployed workers will receive their benefits which expired over the weekend.
Renewable energy tax credit: the tax credit for renewable energy companies will be extended for another year.
The deal involves a little bit of kicking the can down the road: Sequestration will be held off for two months. Which means that, for the first time ever, an odd-numbered year may be a leap year, as the deal would expire at the end of February.
The US House will miss the midnight Monday deadline lawmakers set for voting to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”
House Republicans notified lawmakers that the chamber will vote Monday evening on other bills. They say that will be their only votes of the day, the Associated Press and others reported.
It remained unclear whether the Senate would vote Monday.
Congress could pass later legislation retroactively blocking the tax hikes and spending cuts.
More from the Associated Press here.
As we predicted, the ball already dropped. No need to watch TV tonight. Dick Clark (RIP) won’t be on anyway, sadly. :(
Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were close to a deal Monday to cancel historic tax hikes for most Americans. But they were still hung up on spending, with Democrats resisting a Republican proposal to delay automatic spending cuts for just three months.
As President Obama prepared to deliver remarks about the “fiscal cliff” at 1:30 p.m. at the White House, negotiators for the administration and McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared to have nailed down many of the most critical tax issues, including a plan to let taxes rise on income over $450,000 a year for couples and $400,000 a year for individuals, according to people in both parties familiar with the talks.
The “fiscal cliff” situation is still looking pretty grim, but Democrats and Republicans continue to insist that they’re making headway in their continued negotiations on Monday. While we’re certainly hopeful that the two sides can come together in agreement to prevent tax hikes for 90 percent of Americans, it’s hard to have much faith when they’ve got less than twelve hours to reach a compromise that has eluded them for months.
We guess now would be as good a time as any for everyone to start crossing their fingers…
First, with the exception of a dozen or so Republicans in the House and Maine’s Susan Collins in the Senate, the number of GOP members of the 113th Congress who see cutting a deal with the president — in the fiscal cliff or, frankly, anything else — as politically advantageous is close to zero.
Second, while House Democrats are equally de-incentivized to working across the aisle, there is a large-ish group of Senate Democrats who must find ways of showing their bipartisan spirit if they want to win reelection in states that didn’t favor their party — or even come close to doing so — in the 2012 election.
Those twin political realities make the ground on which the fiscal cliff fight — and future scuffles over gun control measures, etc. — less heavily tilted toward Democrats than you might think.
Cillizza’s argument is based on the fact that few of the Republicans currently in office reside in districts or states where Obama won. Meanwhile, a number of Democrats (especially in the Senate) are in districts or states where Obama lost, big time. Will be interesting to see if this “what’s in it for me” analysis holds up.
I can’t add much to what’s already been (and will be) ...
One of the perks of being an early employee...
Over the last 90 days, the Digg...
#FMMDI (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza)
Thanks. I guess my thoughts are as follows:
1. I think...
I just had a good and constructive discussion here at the White House with Senate and House leadership about how to prevent this tax hike on the middle class. And I’m optimistic we may still be able to reach an agreement that could pass both houses (of Congress) on time; Senators Reid and Connell are working on such an agreement as we speak. But if an agreement isn’t reached in time between Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, then I will urge Senator Reid to bring, to the floor, a basic package for an up-or-down vote — one that protects the middle class from an income tax hike; extends the vital lifeline of unemployment insurance to two million Americans looking for a job; and lays the groundwork for future cooperation on more economic growth and deficit reduction.PRESIDENT OBAMA, updating the nation on the fiscal cliff talks. (via inothernews)
According to Harry Reid, the fiscal cliff appears to be an inevitability. ”It looks like that’s where we’re headed,” he said on the Senate floor this morning. “I don’t know, time-wise, how it can happen now.” (He also got in a bunch of good digs at John Boehner.) To cheer you up, here’s a GIF of our favorite scene from Mac and Me.
Starbucks’ message to Capitol Hill on the fiscal cliff: Come together, right now, over coffee. They are writing this on every cup ordered near Capitol Hill this week. (image via Twitter user @lyndseyfifield)
A White House official said on Tuesday that the president could depart as early as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, both chambers of Congress will come back from their holiday hiatus on Thursday and return to work. While there are growing signs that some members of both parties are prepared to accept a deal that raises taxes on people at the highest income levels, there is considerable distance between Republicans and Democrats and no guarantee that an agreement could pass.
Someone, somewhere, is probably gritting their teeth at the thought that the president took a vacation at all. To which we say, telecommuting.
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