A weary House of Representatives passed legislation late Tuesday night that will prevent the long-feared fiscal cliff of broad tax increases and spending cuts. The bill's passage on a bipartisan 257-167 vote sealed a hard-won political triumph for President Barack Obama.
An agreement was reached late Monday between the White House and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell aimed at averting the fiscal cliff. Early Tuesday morning, the Senate passed the bill, and late Tuesday night, so did the House. Let's break down the key points of the deal.
The Senate passed legislation early New Year's Day to neutralize a fiscal cliff combination of tax increases and spending cuts that kicked in at midnight. The pre-dawn 89-to-8 vote set the stage for a final showdown in the House, where a vote was expected later Tuesday or perhaps Wednesday.
As pundits and politicians rush to sew the year up into a neat little bundle, we decided to look at 2012 from a slightly different angle. Here is our list of the year's worst bets -- six developments that seemed like sure things in January, but were bust by December.
More than 70 tax breaks enjoyed by individuals and businesses expired at the end of 2011. If Congress doesn't extend them retroactively back to the beginning of this year, a typical middle-class family could face a $4,000 tax increase when it files its 2012 return.
Despite an intensifying pace, little progress is being reported in talks on averting automatic spending cuts and tax increases that economists fear could send the U.S. economy off a "fiscal cliff."
The dealmakers who warn that a year-end plunge off the "fiscal cliff" would be disastrous don't seem to be rushing to stop it. Why aren't they panicking? Because those master procrastinators know that Washington deadlines are rarely firm, and they know precisely how they can finagle more time.
On Jan. 1, 2013, the United States will fall over off the fiscal cliff -- unless Congress and the president ink a deal to avert the crisis. If you think you know all about the forthcoming economic apocalypse -- or if you're just wondering what all the fuss is about -- check out our quiz and see.
President Barack Obama will host his former political rival Mitt Romney for a private lunch at the White House Thursday, their first meeting since the election. Obama promised in his victory speech earlier this month to engage with Romney following their bitter campaign and consider the Republican's ideas.
Deep divisions among Senate Democrats over whether cuts to Medicare and Medicaid should be part of a plan to slow the growth of the federal debt pose a big obstacle to a deal for avoiding a potentially economy-crushing "fiscal cliff," even if Republicans agree to raise taxes.
A sex scandal this week led to the resignation of Gen. David Petraeus and shut the door on a promising political career. Washington's halls of power are littered with the corpses of political careers killed by a sexual indiscretions. Here are six types of career-ending political affairs.
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a near four-year low of 7.8 percent in September, even as more Americans come back into the labor force to resume the hunt for work.
In the debate over how to keep Social Security afloat, two proposals dominate: Either raise taxes or cut benefits. Neither is an attractive option, but one there is little-mentioned solution that could fix Social Security almost painlessly: Make more cute little Americans.
The Senate is bracing for a tax-cut showdown that is all about Democrats and Republicans showing voters their differences over taxing the well-off while accusing each other of threatening to shove the government over a fiscal cliff.
Voters are expected to "vote their pocketbooks" -- incumbents tend to win in good economies, and challengers in bad ones. If that holds true, 2012 could be a bad year for President Obama. But -- no surprise -- the realities are a bit more complicated.