The House of Representatives late Tuesday easily approved emergency bipartisan legislation sparing all but a sliver of America’s richest from sharp income tax hikes -- while setting up another “fiscal cliff” confrontation in a matter of weeks. Lawmakers voted 257-167 to send the compromise to President Barack Obama to sign into law. Eighty-five Republicans and 172 Democrats backed the bill, which passed in the Senate by an 89-8 margin. Opposition comprised 151 Republicans and 16 Democrats.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner voted in favor of the deal, as did House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. But Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy voted against it.
President Obama, speaking from the White House briefing room shortly after the vote, praised lawmakers for coming together to avert a tax increase that “could have sent the economy back into a recession.
What do you make of the deal?
