House Passes 'Fiscal Cliff' Bill; Now to President

[brooklynite]

Source: C-Span

The House has passed HR 8, the Tax Relief Extension Act, which the Senate passed early Tuesday morning by a vote of 89 to 8.The so-called "fiscal cliff" agreement had been negotiated Monday between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Vice President Joe Biden. The legislation keeps the Bush era tax cuts for individuals making less than $400,000 and couples making less that $450,000. It also makes permanent the fixes for the Alternative Minimum Tax and delays government spending cuts for two months.

Read more: http://www.c-span.org/Events/House-Passes-Fiscal-Cliff-Bill-Now-to-President/10737436933/

[burrowowl]

1. K&R

[TreasonousBastard]

2. I was watching it, and a little bit of nail-biting...

toward the end, but it got through.

Boner ended up doing the right thing, but Cantor and his buddies have got to go.

[brooklynite]

8. "Cantor and his buddies" are probably in the safest Republic seats...

[TreasonousBastard]

22. Yeah, and i don't see getting rid of them, but...

getting them out of power.

Yeah, I know there's nothing much we can do, but putting whatever pressure we can on them, perhaps thought our own reps, can't hurt.

[brush]

29. Aren't some of the teabaggers going home?

Didn't some lose re-election to the new Congress? The repug majority will be smaller?

[Swede Atlanta]

3. This is a small win for the American people but....

the debate over sequestration cuts and the debt ceiling loom large. The pukes will come out in force to try to rob the American people of their "earned' benefits in SS and Medicare to enable the wealthy energy companies and the military-industrial complex (Eisenhower had the ability to see this in our future).

Trust me, the pukes are just re-grouping and waiting to attack the country. They will come back with a vengeance. And if they cannot win they will take the nation down with them. They are cowards and traitors.

[Cosmocat]

31. Absolutely

this is the first time in nearly two decades that the republican party in DC has not been able to control what happens in congress when in power of any branch.

They are steaming, red hot mad, and the jackasses in the House will want a pound of flesh for it and more.

I have said from day one since it happened, people just simply are not dealing in reality if they think we are going to see any kind of firearm legislation. Not a chance, none, that it gets through the house.

And, they WILL, absolutely without a doubt, run this country into a ditch over the debt ceiling.

I think the President MAY hold tight on that, but either with that or at the sequester, he WILL be ready to sign on something that cuts SS benefits. It might be a "balanced package" but it IS going to happen. The question is what the senate will do. I think they did the "dirty" work of washing that out this time, but I think it is clear he is willing to sign off on cuts to SS to get a bigger deal.

Again, though, whether the House can accept anything beyond complete capitulation is in question.

[starroute]

4. 172 Democrats and 85 Republicans voted in favor

Does this mean the Hastert Rules is broken?

Did Boehner just sign his own death warrant?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Lasher]

16. So it seems.

However, a majority of House Republicans might very well have approved of bringing it to the floor. Then many those who voted to do so could have voted no in the roll call. Ya think?

[Amonester]

25. can't-oR needs 227 votes to kick orange butt outta there

We'll see.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. LMSP kicking...n/t

[alp227]

6. Per the BBC World Service, Obama to speak in 10 minutes (11:20pm ET).

[Turbineguy]

7. Astonishing really,

Now on to the next epic battle between those who fuck America and those willing to compromise.

[Cosmocat]

32. LOL

VERY accurate assessment ...

[question everything]

9. Boehner and Ryan voted YES

Interesting, we watched "Lincoln" a few days ago when the speaker wanted to add his vote on the 13th Amendment. But the Speaker does not vote, protested the vote monitor. The Speaker can if he wants to, was the response.

Apparently, this still holds. I did not know. And Boehner wanted to make a point and voted YES.

[BVictor1]

13. And Cantor voted 'NO'.

[Kaleva]

15. Do you have a link to who voted?

I'm wondering if my Repub representative voted "Yes".

[Lasher]

17. Final results for Roll Call 659

Link here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll659.xml

[Kaleva]

18. Thanks! (R) Benishek voted Yes

The teabaggers where I live are going to be flooding his FaceBook page bigtime! LOL!

[Lasher]

20. My Democratic rep, Nick Rahall, voted yes.

I'm glad I stayed up for this news to come in.

[Odin2005]

10. The GOP crack-up has begun.

Every one of those Republicans who voted YEA are going to get a primary challenge.

[BVictor1]

11. The president looks very tired tonight.

In 2 months this gets to happen all over again.

The debt ceiling and sequestration talks come up soon.

We'll see what happens with a new congress.

[brooklynite]

12. Is that a mustache?

[maddogesq]

26. The good news, and the bad news...

The good news, IMHO, is that finally the Keynesians won one. The bad news is that lot more GOP voted for this in the house than I thought, which leads me to wonder if that chained CPI crap was offered as a prize in future boxes of Crackerjacks.

[Selatius]

35. The Chained-CPI has been around for about a decade as an experimental measure.

It would not have been created had there not been an institutional desire to implement it. If it won't be implemented now, it can be implemented later. It would take a progressive running the BLS to drop the idea altogether.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

14. anyone seen a roll call list yet?

I'm curious how our local wingnuts voted

[Kaleva]

19. See post #17

[freshwest]

28. Unless there's an error, my representative, a member of the CPC, voted No.

i wonder what he found wrong in the bill. Very anti-war, pro social safety net. I'll check tomorrow to see if that list changes an the link.

[abelenkpe]

21. Does this mean no cuts to defense? Nt

[grahamhgreen]

27. Yup! Win Win for Big War.

[brush]

30. Not sure about that

We still went over the "cliff", so to speak. And isn't the big stuff to be decided in 2 months?

[Ghost Dog]

33. That, and,

presumably, raising the fed defecit ceiling yet further, heading further into debt and a weakening USD.

But, February will look like a long way away to 'markets' and others with very short attention spans.

[alfredo]

23. Just for grins he's going to veto and make them override.

[Drum]

24. HA!

[RickFromMN]

34. Not over the Fiscal Cliff? I was wrong. I was certain the House would send us over the cliff.

I was certain Boehner would hold to the Hastert rule to the end.

Imagine letting a House Bill pass with a minority of the House Republicans supporting it.

I can't believe it.

First Chief Justice Roberts preserving most of Obamacare and now Boehner bringing this bill to the floor.

What is the world coming to? What is the Republican Party coming to?

I expect Boehner will have a House Speaker fight in his Republican caucus.
As much as I dislike Boehner, I think I will like Boehner's more conservative Republican opponents less.

We need a Constitutional Amendment that fixes our election system.
This amendment needs to undo the Citizen's United Decision.
This amendment needs to fix the problem of gerrymandering.
I'm pessimistic enough to believe such an amendment will never pass, but I can wish.