Fiscal Cliff

Because Congress permanently killed an estate tax transfer to states this week, California stands to lose $45 million in death tax revenue that Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers anticipated in

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WASHINGTON — There are breaks for movie producers and racetracks, a little gift for Captain Morgan rum and tax credits galore for makers of two- or three-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles, Indian coal facilities and companies that do business in...

Jan. 2, 2013 - The House and Senate passed a budget deal over the long weekend. Headlines reported it as a deal about the "fiscal cliff." It wasn't. It had some good and some bad elements, but it did nearly nothing to address the actual problem that wa...

Jan. 1, 2012 - "It's not all I would have liked," says Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, speaking of the deal on the fiscal cliff, "so on to the debt ceiling." The battle over the fiscal cliff was only a prelude to the coming battle...

Much has been made of the split on the right, not only between the Senate which voted overwhelmingly for the compromise while the majority of House Republicans voted against it, but within the house as you had the more pragmatic John Boehner opposed by...

WASHINGTON — Past its own New Year's deadline, a weary Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation to avoid a national "fiscal cliff" of middle class tax increases and spending cuts late Tuesday night in the culmination of a struggle that...

President Obama signed an executive order last week that will lift a ban on pay freezes for federal employees. Rank-and-file members of Congress – including the outgoing Congressman in our district, Tom McClintock – would all see a $900 bump next year, up from $174,000. No word from Tom about that, though some Senators...

Dec. 31, 2012 - The deal emerging from the Senate is a lousy one. Let me count the ways: 1. Republicans haven't conceded anything on the debt ceiling, so over the next two months – as the Treasury runs out of tricks to avoid a default – Republican...

Late last night or technically early this morning in Washington, the Senate after intense last minute negotiations between Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell emerged with a compromise that passed a reluctant Senate by...