Fiscal Deal Analysis

How bad do some House Republicans think the Senate bill is? Ohio Rep. Steven LaTourette thinks the only way that number of Senate Republicans could have voted for the plan was if they were drunk:

"I think our sense, at least in the House, was that a number of the Republicans that voted for it must have been drunk, because it really was a number that wasn't reflective of where we thought some of these people were going to be on a bill like this," he said after emerging from a House GOP caucus meeting.

Just a few years ago, the tax deal pushed through Congress on Tuesday would have been a Republican fiscal fantasy, a sweeping bill that locks in virtually all of the Bush-era tax cuts, exempts almost all estates from taxation, and enshrines the former presidents credo that dividends and capital gains should be taxed equally and gently.

After exhaustive negotiations that strained the country's patience, the House approved a bill to avert the dreaded fiscal cliff, staving off widespread tax increases and deep spending cuts.
In the 257-167 vote late Tuesday, 172 Democrats and 85 Republicans favored the bill; 16 Democrats and 151 Republicans opposed it.