After Midnight Cliff Deal*

What's in the Deal?

After Midnight Deadline, Senate Approves Last-Ditch Cliff Deal

 

The Senate approved the package 89-8, sending it to the House, where Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, will have to wrangle enough GOP votes to pair with House Democrats to send the bill to the president’s desk.

 

Reportedly there are $620 billion in new taxes and $15 billion in spending cuts, a ratio of $41 to $1.

The U.S. House is to convene today at noon to vote on the bill. It will take Democrats plus at least 32 Republicans to pass.

Tammy Bruce: "The Senate, once again, voted on and passed a bill that no one read."

Brit Hume: "I can't remember any previous President staging a campaign-style rally at the White House in the late hours of a critical budget negotiation."

 

~ Raise tax rates for families making more than $450,000 and delay deep across-the-board spending cuts for two months.

~ A year long extension of both unemployment benefits and business-friendly tax provisions

~ Tax cuts for families first enacted in the 2009 stimulus — an earned income tax credit, child tax credit and college tax credit — would be extended for five years.

~ Prevent rate cuts to doctors who treat Medicare patients, sources said. Dividends and capital gains for families who earn more than $450,000 would be taxed at 20 percent, up from the current 15 percent rate.

~ Cancels pay raises for members of Congress and would avert an expected hike in the price of milk by extending expiring dairy policy.

 

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