Fiscal Cliff

On the heels of the Senate's last-minute fiscal cliff deal, agreement to stave off the harshest and most immediate consequences of the cliff won approval in the House.

The House voted 257-167 for it. President Barack Obama said he would sign the law, the battle over which foreshadowed more fights with Congress over spending.

Passed over the objections of many conservative Republicans, the legislation takes steps toward resolving the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts.

Those cuts were to take effect January 1, but the new bill preserves tax rates as they were at the end of 2012, except for those earning more than $400,000.

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A full two hours after a midnight deadline, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a deal Tuesday to avert the feared fiscal cliff of tax increases and spending cut.

The bipartisan bill passed 89-8.

Budget cuts will be put off for two months and income tax cuts for individuals earning less than $400,000 or couples earning less than $450,000 are preserved.

The measure now goes to the U.S. House where it faces an uncertain future in the GOP-controlled body. However, the Senate's margin of passage sends a message.

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The fiscal cliff is overrated by some measures. It's just the beginning, by others.

The economy won't cease to exist if the cliff is breached. However, prospects for a long-term recovery - and the political system's ability to institute positive change - are in doubt.

Regardless of whether a last-minute deal is reached to avoid the worst tax hikes and spending cuts, the impact of the fiscal cliff will be felt well into 2013.

Most likely, a compromise will be reached soon, if only to put off the inevitable. But the tone has been set for the new year, and possibly for the next four.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said we are more than likely headed over the fiscal cliff and called the GOP-controlled House of Representatives a "dictatorship." 

An extremely poor one, but a dictatorship just the same.

Just how bad the fiscal cliff will suck remains to be seen, as does how long it takes to strike a deal. But it looks inevitable that the Dec. 31 deadline will pass, Reid lamented.

He took to the Senate floor to declare his frustration with Congress' other chamber as the deadline to deal with the so-called fiscal cliff rapidly approaches.

Reid argued that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) could easily end the standoff and avert the across-the-board tax hike in 2013 this afternoon.

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Still reeling from the 2012 presidential election, C. Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons fame took a few minutes to explain the upcoming Fiscal Cliff this week.

You have to give the tycoon credit for moving on in the wake of Mitt Romney's defeat to bring America up to date on January 1's impending financial calamity.

Unfortunately, that doesn't exactly go as planned either, according to Smithers and his Insta-polls ...

Fiscal Cliff: The Simpsons

President Barack Obama is expected to make his case for avoiding the approaching "fiscal cliff" this, but the White House is hoping Americans will chime in on Twitter.

Using the White House's new #My2K hashtag, of course.

Obama is promoting the hashtag to bring to light the potential tax increase on the middle class coming in 2013 if Bush-era tax cuts are allowed to expire.

The keyword #My2K was chosen specifically because, according to the White House, a middle class family of four could see a tax increase of about $2,220.

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America is rapidly approaching the so-called Fiscal Cliff. Maybe you heard.

Sign the secession petitions, because this is going to be an epic disaster.

Or is it? That, obviously, depends on the outcome ... and who you ask.

The so-called "Fiscal Cliff" comes on January 1, when several tax cuts expire, and severe cuts to government spending are automatically triggered.

It's also been called "taxmageddon," with the average American family set to see their taxes increase $3,700 in 2013 unless a new budget deal is stuck.

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