WASHINGTON - The Republican dominated US House of Representatives late Tuesday passed the “fiscal cliff” deal approved earlier in the Senate, raising taxes on upper-income households.
After a long day of deliberation, the bill was adopted on a 257-167 vote and thus is ready for President Barack Obama’s signature. The passage ended weeks of political bickering around the fiscal crisis.
The legislation earlier passed the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority, by an overwhelming 89-8.
House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, and 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, voted for the deal, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, also a Republican, voted against it..
“A central premise of my campaign for president was to change the tax code that was too skewed towards the wealthy at the expense of working, middle-class Americans,” President Obama said at a White House news conference after the vote. “Tonight, we’ve done that. Thanks to the votes of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while preventing a middle-class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into recession and obviously had severe impact on families all across America.” Obama thanked Vice President Joe Biden and congressional leaders for their work in reaching the deal, which includes an extension of unemployment benefits. He said the law is just “one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity for everybody.”
Obama said the deficit is still too high, and the government needs to invest more in growing the economy.
He acknowledged there is “unnecessary spending in government” that can be eliminated, but “we can’t simply cut our way to prosperity.”
The president took a sharp stand on looming debt-ceiling negotiations, saying he won’t stand for the “drama” and “brinksmanship” that characterized last year’s battle over paying the government’s bills.
“While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed. Let me repeat: We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic - far worse than the impact of a ‘fiscal cliff.’”
The White House said Obama would reunite with his family in Hawaii for the remainder of their vacation.
Earlier Tuesday, Boehner and Biden wrangled support for a compromise in the face of mounting Republican opposition. Cantor forcefully expressed his opposition behind closed doors before the vote, and other Republicans did the same, The Washington Post reported.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the measure will add nearly $4 trillion to the US debt in the next 10 years because of lost revenue or payments on refundable tax credits, Politico reported.
Biden also met with House Democrats, the Los Angeles Times reported. Some liberal groups have been calling on them to reject the compromise on the grounds that the threshold for tax increases is too high.
“It is clear that the vice president and the president are convinced that they have done the right thing. They don’t see it as a perfect deal though, and nobody else does,” Congressman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, told The New York Times before the House vote.
The compromise extends current tax rates for the middle class and delays automatic spending cuts.
The deal hammered out by Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell permanently extends tax rates lowered during President George W. Bush’s administration on individual income up to $400,000 and family income up to $450,000. The lower Bush-era tax rates for higher incomes would expire and return to the higher rates in effect during President Bill Clinton’s administration.