Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): While much of the country kicked off the new year by going back to work today, Washington said its goodbyes to the 112th Congress, after a late night of final suspense on the fiscal cliff legislation. It gave the president much of what he wanted on taxes, and left Republicans sharply divided.
For President Obama, the end, for now, of the Washington budget drama meant returning to Hawaii today to resume his holiday vacation. But last night, before leaving, he welcomed House approval of the fiscal cliff bill.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: A central promise 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. Tonight, we have done that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The final vote in the House was 257 to 167 on a bill the Senate had already approved. It capped days of intense negotiations. The provisions will affect nearly all taxpayers. For individuals making at least $400,000 and couples making $450,000, income tax rates will go up from the current 35 percent to more than 39 percent.
For that same group, dividend and capital gains taxes will also rise to 20 percent, from 15 percent. And all income groups get hit by the expiration of a payroll tax break. It's increasing 2 percentage points to 6.2 percent on the first $113,000 of income.
Ultimately, though, the vast majority of Americans get to keep their Bush era income tax cuts, contributing another $4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. Republicans made a late push for offsetting spending cuts. When they failed to get them, 151 GOP lawmakers voted against the measure, including Congressman Darrell Issa of California.
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