Fiscal Follies

The House finally got its act together - sort of - and passed the Senate's bill to avoid the fiscal cliff, avoiding for the time being major tax increases and government spending cuts that had been scheduled to go into effect at the beginning of 2013.  The vote in the House  was 257 to 167.

The measure will raise tax rates on incomes over $400,000 a year for individuals and $450,000 a year for couples, and while this isn't exactly what the Democrats wanted - they were aiming for tax hikes on individuals with incomes over $250,000 a year, as had been the case under President Clinton - that figure of $250,000, when adjusted for inflation is not that much under the $400,000 figure that was agreed to.  

While the bill extends expiring unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and stops   in fees for doctors who treat Medicare patients, not everyone is going to be happy with the House's wrap-up of its business before the new House is sworn in on Thursday.  The Republican leadership decided not to bother with voting on a $60 billion aid package to eleven states for relief from the impact of Hurricane Sandy ("I'm so glad we had that storm last week because I think . . . [it] brought in possibilities for good politics" - noted loudmouth Chris Matthews on Election Night), but it did give lots of money in incentives to Hollywood studios ($430 million, less than half of which will probably go to cover Disney's John Carter losses) and to NASCAR ($70 million).

By the way what's the difference between NASCAR and a Hollywood studio?  One puts out a dumbed-down product celebrating ignorance and anti-intellectualism.  The other races stock cars. :-p

On the other hand, Congress did cancel a $900 pay raise for each of its members . . ..