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White House and McConnell reach agreement on “fiscal cliff”

White House and McConnell reach agreement on “fiscal cliff”

Details just coming out, vote in Senate expected tonight.

Looks like the number is 400/450k for tax increases and delay of sequester automatic spending cuts for two months.

More when the details are confirmed.

Update: Details on the deal, which apparently will go to a vote in the Senate after midnight so they can say they are voting to reduce taxes, summarized at WaPo. Here are some of the points:

-Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. all income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates.

—The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It remain at 15 percent for everyone else.

—The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption. That threshold will be indexed to inflation, as a concession to Republicans and some Democrats to rural areas like Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.).

—The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, spilt between defense and non-defense. The other half will be offset revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, which would tax retirement savings when they’re moved over.

—The Alternative Minimum Tax will be permanently patched to avoid raising taxes on the middle-class.

—The deal will not address the debt-ceiling, and the payroll tax holiday will be allowed to expire.

—Two limits on tax exemptions and deductions for higher-income Americans will be reimposed: Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP) will be set at $250,000 and the itemized deduction limitation (Pease) kicks in at $300,000.

[Feed removed]

(added 1-1-2013) Senate passed bill at about 2 a.m. 89-8.  Sen. Paul and Rubio voted No.

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Comments

Yep, that should really help the economy! /sarc

none of this changes anything, it raises maybe about 60-70 billion extra per year, our debt is growing 1.3 trillion per year.

Let them keep kicking the can, frankly I wish all business and people would just “go john gault”, let this whole charade of fiscal “sanity” crash faster, so then at least the problems will be so big it will have to be confronted through th ebond markets.

I’m not buying anything I don’t need, I have several family members who own pretty small businesses, they will be affected by this, so they sure as hell won’t be hiring.

Just let the fiscal crash accelerate, no amount of money will be enough for these dem leeches!

Mitch McGrovel is an idiot. GOP will still be blamed for whatever Obama feels does the most damage.

Seriously, why create new wealth so the socialist dems can “spread the wealth”??

And heck, I’m in the middle income category, I won’t directly affected by this, but I’m employed by a small business, guess what’s going to happen?? I won’t be getting a raise! and heck they might even cut my hours now, lowering my income! And I won’t be blaming my employers, I blame the cockroach dems in congress!

NICE GOING YOU SCUM DEMOCRATS!

It’s arrived. The debt ceiling, that is. Republicans Win! That is, if they want to win.

1) No tax increases
2) Ryan budget (I know, I know. But at least it goes in the right direction.)
3) $50B automatic monthly debt ceiling rise for 12 months
4) More debt only if Obamacare mandates vanish.

If no deal, no debt ceiling increase. No mo Santa Claus.

huskers-for-palin | December 31, 2012 at 10:04 pm

can’t wait to see the list of those in the GOP who vote for this….2014 can’t come soon enough.

The GOP has a spine like Gumby.

BannedbytheGuardian | December 31, 2012 at 10:15 pm

Well well ….

Gays won’t be too eager to get married now . They will stay in their arty post industrial attic studio & gaze across the boondocks at their significant other housed in the historic Olde Biscuit Factory.

450 thou together?

so will Barry and the Obot MSM be blaming the repubs when the amount of revenue drop coming into the massive federal govt exceeds what they extracted in higher tax rates from the “evil” rich people??
(of course they are too dense to realise, extraction of money from the “evil” rich people is a one time thing, there is only so much that can be extracted before people, the productive ones, realize, the wagons too heavy, and why the hell should they be pulling all this extra load that is ever increasing!)

–just a rhetorical question.

Looks like I picked the wrong legislative session to quit sniffing glue.

    punfundit in reply to sybilll. | January 1, 2013 at 2:15 am

    Congress? What is it?

    It’s a big, grey building that used to mean something. But that’s not important right now.

I have completely given up on our government. A pox on both their houses. No deal is better than a bad deal. Frigging idiots have no one to blame but themselves, and that included the people who voted for these “leaders” too.

Wait! There is a Boehner miracle! —

Boehner has caught Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi disease: he threw up, passed out, fell on his head, got a concussion, then a blood clot — but in the process underwent a miraculous personality transformation:

Now says Boehner:

“If the president continues to act like a clown, by God we’re going to treat him like a clown. For starters, the House will hold an emergency vote to cut funding for Air Force One, as well as White House discretionary spending. In addition, hearings will be held immediately to determine exactly how the Obamas spent $1.4 billion dollars of taxpayer money on themselves in 2012. This will be done, or my name is not John Boehner. This guy does not know who he’s messing with.”

Or not.

The causes have not been addressed. The systemic risk is still there. The opportunity cost for corruption continues its progressive slide. We remain on course to realize conclusive or terminal corruption.

[…] There may be trouble ahead But while there’s moonlight and music And love and romance Let’s face the music and dance […]

The worst part of this deal isn’t mentioned: Another year of unemployment extensions for $30 Billion.

As we all know too well 2013 (and beyond) is going to be painful, so brace yourselves for what is coming down the pike.

And I’m going to refrain from commenting about Obama since the only appropriate things that can be said about him and the disgraceful manner he has conducted himself over this problem, involve plenty of four-letter words.

The tax increases will take effect today.
The spending cuts will never happen.
The stimulus spending will be more than they show.
Welcome to TEFRA2.
Fasten your seat belt, the roller coaster is about to plunge.

I’m probably missing the fine print, or the legalese, but since when does the Senate get to initiate revenue bills?

    BannedbytheGuardian in reply to punfundit. | January 1, 2013 at 3:11 am

    At the stadium they ran out of prey for the wild animals The people wanted the show to go on so Caligula saw some Senators in the front rows & threw them into the arena

    A great show & the people were very entertained.

    There IS a place for Senators .

It is not done until the house votes on it. Maybe there is sanity in the house –wishful thinking–.

A spending and tax bill originating in the Senate? Blue Slip it and give the Senate and Obama a civics lesson.

    snopercod in reply to Sanddog. | January 1, 2013 at 6:41 am

    To avoid the Constitution requirement that all revenue bills originate in the House, Reid probably pulled the same trick He did with Obamacare – take an unrelated House Bill and “amend” it with all new text. This bill is H.R. 8 (Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act of 2012), AKA the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012”. The Roll Call Vote was #251, taken on January 1, 2013, 01:39 AM. The following eight senators voted “No”

    Bennet (D-CO)
    Carper (D-DE)
    Grassley (R-IA)
    Harkin (D-IA)
    Lee (R-UT)
    Paul (R-KY)
    Rubio (R-FL)
    Shelby (R-AL)

    Not Voting were:

    DeMint (R-SC)
    Kirk (R-IL)
    Lautenberg (D-NJ)

      Sanddog in reply to snopercod. | January 1, 2013 at 3:00 pm

      It worked for obamacare because Pelosi controlled the house. Boehner is under no obligation to wink at the Senate and flip off the constitution.

TrooperJohnSmith | January 1, 2013 at 4:45 am

No. More. Continuing. Resolutions.

No Budget, No Spending.

OK, I got a headache and I do not understand a damn thing concerning this CRAP.

Choices-Choices:
Ease the headache. Have another and fugheaboutit.

Hmmm.