America's not going over the fiscal cliff, as the House of Representatives Tuesday approved the last-minute deal to pull the nation away from the brink of economic chaos.
WASHINGTON — America's not going over the fiscal cliff, as the House of Representatives Tuesday approved the last-minute deal to pull the nation away from the brink of economic chaos.
The vote came quick and without much controversy, a calm and collegial finish to a turbulent day. The House approved the measure by a vote of 257-167. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill quickly, perhaps Wednesday.
"By voting for this agreement we will demonstrate we listened to the American people, we heeded their call to work together in a bipartisan way," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the minority leader in the House. "Let us send a message that while the bill doesn't accomplish all we need to do, it is a good way to have a happy start to a new year.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, did not speak about the measure.
Reluctant House Republicans, concerned the plan had too few spending cuts and not enough meaningful debt reduction, had threatened to stymie the plan. Their fury was fueled further by a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the package would add $3.97 trillion to deficits over the next decade.
But they also came to realize that scuttling the package could instantly put the nation's slowly improving economy in jeopardy. Tax rates had already gone up Tuesday, and automatic spending cuts were scheduled to kick in Wednesday.
In private meetings Tuesday, Republicans expressed concern that once domestic financial markets re-open after the New Year's Day holiday Wednesday, reaction to legislative gridlock could be severe. It's a risk, said Rep. John Fleming, R-La., "we all recognize."
As a result, the debate became a virtual celebration of bipartisan agreement. "After more than a decade of criticizing these tax cuts, Democrats are finally joining Republicans in making these tax cuts permanent," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. Pelosi lauded the bill as a "very, very strong first step as we go into the new year."
The legislation, passed by the Senate 89 to 8 Tuesday morning, will postpone the automatic spending cuts for two months. Individuals making more than $400,000 — $450,000 for families — would pay a top income tax rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Others would pay at 2012 rates.
The plan also ties the alternative minimum tax to inflation, a relief for an estimated 30 million taxpayers who could have been hit with higher bills. Other measures include an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and avoiding a huge cut in Medicare payments to doctors for a year.
Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin, both D-W.Va., sent out separate news releases around 2 a.m. Tuesday on the Senate deal.
"This deal is by no means perfect, but it fully protects middle-class tax cuts, reinstates Clinton-era tax rates for the very wealthy, and extends several tax credits that are crucial to low-income families throughout West Virginia," Rockefeller said. "Through these strong actions, we can begin to close the historic income divide that has plagued our nation for decades."
Manchin said, "This is not the 'big fix' I want, but it's the best we can do at this late hour. ... The fact is, this deal is the flawed product of a broken process that puts politics ahead of people. And it sets us up for more dangerous political gamesmanship in the months ahead. But the bottom line is this last-minute deal guarantees that the paychecks of middle-class Americans won't take a big hit from higher taxes on New Year's Day, and it protects more than 99 percent of all West Virginians."
The vote in the House came after a day of furious closed-door lobbying—and arm-twisting. Vice President Joe Biden met for two hours with House Democrats. At the same time, Republicans met privately twice, for a total of nearly three hours. They heard opposition from Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who has a strong following among conservatives. "There was a lot of discontent in that room," said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio.
The congressional turmoil was no surprise. Republicans have long been unhappy with Democrats' reluctance to agree to big spending cuts, and were not pleased the latest deal delayed the automatic cuts.
WASHINGTON — America's not going over the fiscal cliff, as the House of Representatives Tuesday approved the last-minute deal to pull the nation away from the brink of economic chaos.
The vote came quick and without much controversy, a calm and collegial finish to a turbulent day. The House approved the measure by a vote of 257-167. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill quickly, perhaps Wednesday.
"By voting for this agreement we will demonstrate we listened to the American people, we heeded their call to work together in a bipartisan way," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the minority leader in the House. "Let us send a message that while the bill doesn't accomplish all we need to do, it is a good way to have a happy start to a new year.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, did not speak about the measure.
Reluctant House Republicans, concerned the plan had too few spending cuts and not enough meaningful debt reduction, had threatened to stymie the plan. Their fury was fueled further by a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the package would add $3.97 trillion to deficits over the next decade.
But they also came to realize that scuttling the package could instantly put the nation's slowly improving economy in jeopardy. Tax rates had already gone up Tuesday, and automatic spending cuts were scheduled to kick in Wednesday.
In private meetings Tuesday, Republicans expressed concern that once domestic financial markets re-open after the New Year's Day holiday Wednesday, reaction to legislative gridlock could be severe. It's a risk, said Rep. John Fleming, R-La., "we all recognize."
As a result, the debate became a virtual celebration of bipartisan agreement. "After more than a decade of criticizing these tax cuts, Democrats are finally joining Republicans in making these tax cuts permanent," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. Pelosi lauded the bill as a "very, very strong first step as we go into the new year."
The legislation, passed by the Senate 89 to 8 Tuesday morning, will postpone the automatic spending cuts for two months. Individuals making more than $400,000 — $450,000 for families — would pay a top income tax rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Others would pay at 2012 rates.
The plan also ties the alternative minimum tax to inflation, a relief for an estimated 30 million taxpayers who could have been hit with higher bills. Other measures include an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and avoiding a huge cut in Medicare payments to doctors for a year.
Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin, both D-W.Va., sent out separate news releases around 2 a.m. Tuesday on the Senate deal.
"This deal is by no means perfect, but it fully protects middle-class tax cuts, reinstates Clinton-era tax rates for the very wealthy, and extends several tax credits that are crucial to low-income families throughout West Virginia," Rockefeller said. "Through these strong actions, we can begin to close the historic income divide that has plagued our nation for decades."
Manchin said, "This is not the 'big fix' I want, but it's the best we can do at this late hour. ... The fact is, this deal is the flawed product of a broken process that puts politics ahead of people. And it sets us up for more dangerous political gamesmanship in the months ahead. But the bottom line is this last-minute deal guarantees that the paychecks of middle-class Americans won't take a big hit from higher taxes on New Year's Day, and it protects more than 99 percent of all West Virginians."
The vote in the House came after a day of furious closed-door lobbying—and arm-twisting. Vice President Joe Biden met for two hours with House Democrats. At the same time, Republicans met privately twice, for a total of nearly three hours. They heard opposition from Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who has a strong following among conservatives. "There was a lot of discontent in that room," said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio.
The congressional turmoil was no surprise. Republicans have long been unhappy with Democrats' reluctance to agree to big spending cuts, and were not pleased the latest deal delayed the automatic cuts.
"This does nothing about getting the $16.4 trillion debt under control, said Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio.
Republicans made a last-ditch effort to pass more spending cuts, offering to consider the same package of $328 billion in cuts that passed on a party-line vote December 20, but could not muster enough support Tuesday. Many Republicans worried that attaching the measure would never make it through the Senate, putting the entire fiscal cliff deal at risk.
"We don't want to do anything in the House that would create a poison pill for the Senate," said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho.
Few lawmakers in either party seemed happy with the plan, as the unease Tuesday crossed party and ideological lines.
"This punts the problem," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. "It just sets us up for more fights."
But few dissenters spoke during the debate. Rep. James Moran, D-Va., said the bill will "set up three more fiscal cliffs," including fights over raising the debt ceiling and the sequester and said "and all that's left is the spending cuts. What programs do we cut and how deep? We're going to look back on this night and regret it."
House Republicans were not pleased that they had virtually no input into the deal, crafted by Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
LaTourette called the plan "a package by a bunch of sleep-deprived octogenarians."
The loudest protests came from the 87 Republican freshmen first elected in 2010, swept into office on a pledge to drastically slash federal spending.
"There is a resignation that the big steps forward my class wanted to take is not possible with this Congress," said Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga. "Only small steps forward are absolutely possible."
Whether he and others could accept such small steps was the key to approving the deal. Veteran Republicans argued the package was as good as they were going to get.
"Let's recognize we avoided what could have been a terrible outcome," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.
He urged resisting changes. "It's too late in the game," he said. "You can keep tinkering with this, but you're not going to make it perfect."
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