The law passed by Congress to avoid the "fiscal cliff" represents the beginning of a decline for liberalism in America, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will believes.

"I think people will look back on this deal as where liberalism passed an apogee and went into decline," Will said Sunday in a panel discussion on ABC's "This Week."

The reason, Will explained, is that Democrats supported making the Bush-era tax cuts in the fiscal cliff bill for all but the wealthiest Americans, but liberalism requires high taxes on the middle class in order to have the expensive government programs that liberals prefer. more >>

The "fiscal cliff" bill, or the "American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012," increased taxes, President Barack Obama says. Many Republicans say the bill lowered taxes. As a corollary, Obama says the bill will lower budget deficits. But the Congressional Budget Office says the bill will require even more government borrowing. Who is right?

In a video posted to his campaign website Wednesday, Obama said, "the agreement we reached this week will reduce the deficit even more by asking the wealthiest two percent of Americans to pay higher taxes for the first time in two decades. So that's progress."

The fiscal cliff law "further reduces the deficit by $737 billion," Obama claimed in his weekly radio address Saturday, "making it one of the largest deficit reduction bills passed by Congress in over a decade." more >>

Congress and President Barack Obama have prevented a potential recession with the "fiscal cliff" bill, but in doing so put off, yet again, many difficult decisions necessary to get the nation's fiscal house in order. In a couple of months, three more fiscal cliff battles lie ahead -- sequestration, the debt ceiling, and a new federal budget.

Sequestration

As part of the Budget Control Act (2011), about $1 trillion of automatic spending cuts were supposed to begin going into effect in 2013 if Congress did not replace them with an equivalent amount of deficit reduction. About half of those cuts are in defense and the other half are in other discretionary spending. more >>

When the dust settled after the House and Senate voted on the fiscal cliff bill, Democrats supplied the overwhelming majority of the votes. But what may yet prove to be the bigger issue was how the issue split Republicans in both chambers. It may well set the stage for how Congress and the GOP will function in the coming year.

In the final 36 hours there seemed little chance to salvage a deal. Growing frustrated when Senate Democrats stopped negotiating, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on his long-time friend, Vice President Joe Biden, to sit down and see if they could hammer out a couple of final points to win passage in the upper chamber.

Both men cut their political teeth on back-room deals so the announcement of a compromise surprised few within earshot of Capitol Hill. more >>

Pundits contend that Tuesday's passage of the bill to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff was in essence the Democrats' ratification of the tax cuts implemented by President George W. Bush in 2001 – at least for families making under $450,000 annually.

Dana Perino, who served as Bush's press secretary, told The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin on Wednesday that she doesn't believe Democrats can move away from the Bush tax cuts since they endorsed it in Tuesday's vote.

"Yes, the Bush tax cuts, which were demonized by Democrats for years as being only for the rich, were deemed critical to the country's middle class by the very Democrats who complained the loudest about – and voted against – them," wrote Perino in an email to Rubin. "When confronted with their hypocrisy, many Democrats just shrug it off as if listening to Charlie Brown's teacher. But deep down they know they lost the argument, and it will be impossible for them to ever go back on their new position." more >>

Tea Party Leaders are expressing outrage and disappointment over the House passing a bill late New Year's Day that allows President Obama and Congressional Democrats to raise taxes on wealthy Americans with no guarantee of future spending cuts.

"Sadly, our New Year's predictions have all come true," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots. "Congress and the president had all year to do their jobs and be fiscally responsible – and, just like we said they would, they waited until the last possible moment to fail their nation miserably with a 'fiscal cliff' scheme to raise taxes and keep overspending.

The issue for those who believe the nation has a spending problem and not a revenue problem suddenly became a nightmare when 85 Republicans in the House joined 172 of their Democrat colleagues in supporting the measure that was sent over in the wee hours of the morning on New Year's Day. more >>