Jan. 4 (DP.net).─ No one is really happy with the solution given to the American public by the US Congress with the happy approval of Vice President Biden and President Obama. The Fiscal Cliff's disaster is only delayed and is compounded by the huge public debt and budgetary deficits.
In addition, the US faces a gargantuan problem pocking through the debt ceiling that must be raised again this January to avoid default. What riled House Republicans until the last minute wasn't the taxes on the rich in the Senate's 'fiscal cliff' bill, it was the absence of significant spending cuts. But changes at this late date could have scuttled the bill. So they yielded to pressure.
This bill represented the largest tax increase in the past two decades and was passed over opposition from the conservative Republican sector in the House who objected to the fact that it contained no long-term spending cuts of any significance. A few minutes after the bill was approved in the House, Pres. Obama and VP Joe Biden appeared in the White House press briefing room. "Thanks to the votes of Democrats and Republicans in Congress I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans while preventing a middle-class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into recession and obviously had a severe impact on families all across America." Mr. Obama said.