A deal has been struck to stave off the harshest and most immediate consequences of the media driven public paranoia frenzy called the “fiscal cliff” as the recent Senate deal won approval in the GOP controlled House late Monday night and passed with Republican congressmen (151) voting against the Senate bill than for it (85), meaning that Democrats’ support was needed to advance the final deal. BOTH House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.,voted for the deal while Boehner’s top henchmen, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va (Who’s posturing for Boehner’s job) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., each opposed the deal.
The legislation, a combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that took effect at midnight on Jan. 1. preserves tax rates as they were at the end of 2012, except for those individuals earning more than $400,000 and households earning over $450,000. It also allows taxes on capital gains and dividends to go up, and extends unemployment benefits that were due to expire and revert back to their 20 week norm.
And of course the Tea Party is going ballistic. Hasn’t anyone told them that they are irrelevant yet?
