memeorandum: ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Also Doles Out Millions for Hollywood, Railroads, Rum Producers (Devin Dwyer/ABCNEWS)

1:55 AM ET, January 2, 2013

Top Items:

House approves ‘fiscal cliff’ deal, rescinding broad tax hike — This post has been updated. See below for details. — WASHINGTON — The House gave final approval Tuesday night to a bill to rescind tax increases for the vast majority of Americans, but only after a day of closed-door …

Discussion: CBS News, The Daily Beast, TechCrunch, The Reaction, The Huffington Post and Patterico's Pontifications

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

GOP Congressmen Suggest Republican Senators Who Voted For ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Compromise Were Drunk — House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), who is joining a growing number of Republicans trying to add more spending cuts to the last-minute fiscal cliff deal and send it back to the Senate …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit and The Other McCain

David Rogers / Reuters:

House pulls plug on Sandy aid bill — House Republicans abruptly pulled the plug Tuesday night on their promise to take up this week an emergency supplemental disaster aid bill for Northeast states damaged by Hurricane Sandy. — The decision is a stunning reversal since just hours …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, The Hill and The Hill

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

CBO: ‘Fiscal cliff’ deal carries $4 trillion price tag over next decade — The Senate deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” will add roughly $4 trillion to the deficit when compared to current law, according to new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Discussion: Business Insider, Politico, The Gateway Pundit, John Lott's Website, The Other McCain and CNN

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Amid Pressure, House Passes Fiscal Deal — WASHINGTON — House Republicans, fearful of blame and political recrimination for looming tax increases on most Americans, reversed course on Tuesday and cleared the way for House approval of a measure that would avert most of the increases …

Discussion: News Desk, Taegan Goddard's …, CNN, The Maddow Blog, The Week, Truthdig, Angry Bear, Wall Street Journal and Balloon Juice

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:

Could A Boehner-Cantor Rift Send The Country Over The Fiscal Cliff? — A rift at the highest level of House Republican leadership is imperiling Senate-backed legislation to yank the economy back from over the fiscal cliff — legislation that House Republicans directly asked their GOP counterparts in the Senate to negotiate and pass.

Discussion: CBS News, The Hill, Bloomberg, CANNONFIRE, The Raw Story, The Impolitic and Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes'

Devin Dwyer / ABCNEWS:

‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Also Doles Out Millions for Hollywood, Railroads, Rum Producers — The “fiscal cliff” compromise has been heralded as a saving grace for middle class taxpayers, their families and the unemployed. — But buried in the fine print of the 150-page deal are also some lesser-known …

Discussion: BREITBART.COM and ABCNEWS

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Part 1 of the Fiscal Cliff is Over. Now Gird Yourself for Part 2. — The fiscal cliff is dead. Long live the fiscal cliff. — It's over. Sort of. The Senate voted 89-8 to prevent middle-class taxes from rising while allowing rates to increase for taxpayers with incomes over $450,000.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

David Rogers / Politico:
The price tag: $4 trillion added to deficit

Discussion: Jared Bernstein, Truthdig and The Gateway Pundit

Kyle Balluck / The Hill:
House Republicans gauging support for two budget options

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, NBC Politics, The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, Sky Dancing, CBS News, Firedoglake, Crooks and Liars and The Hill

Bob Cusack / The Hill:
Boehner's 100 loyal soldiers might give him political cover on ‘fiscal cliff’

Discussion: The Hill, Hullabaloo and Crooks and Liars

Washington Post:
House members meet to review Senate-passed cliff deal

Discussion: Post Politics, Wonkblog, Power Line, The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post and Calculated Risk

CNNMoney.com:
CBO: Fiscal cliff deal adds $4 trillion to deficits

Discussion: Washington Times, Weasel Zippers, CNN and Outside the Beltway

John Stanton / BuzzFeed: Republicans Prepare To Vote On Fiscal Deal

Peter Baker / New York Times:
On the Left, Seeing Obama Giving Away Too Much, Again

Discussion: The Reaction, The Week and Daily Kos

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:
U.S. Fiscal Cliff Deal Leaves House Republicans Angry, Deal In Jeopardy

Discussion: Right Turn, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Balloon Juice, Associated Press, Booman Tribune, CNN and The Agonist

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate Democrats will reject House changes to tax bill, aides say

Discussion: AMERICAblog and ABCNEWS

Politico:
House set for final vote on fiscal cliff

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:
White House Claims Victory In Fiscal Deal

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Politico

Fox News:
Fiscal crisis measure now heads to the House for approval

Discussion: Fox News Insider, Hot Air, protein wisdom and Conservatives4Palin

Dylan Byers / Politico:

‘Journal News’ hires armed security guards — The Journal News of West Nyack, N.Y., has hired armed security guards to defend its offices after receiving a torrent of phone calls and emails responding to the paper's publication of the names and addresses of area residents with pistol permits.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gestetner Updates, UrbanGrounds and Weasel Zippers, more at Mediagazer »

Dskriloff / The Rockland County Times:

The Journal News is Armed and Dangerous — ROCKLAND COUNTY TIMES EXCLUSIVE — Armed guards from RGA Investigations have taken up post at the Journal News' Rockland County headquarters — Journal News' Rockland headquarters in West Nyack, Town of Clarkstown — Guns are good for the goose but NOT for the gander.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Gawker and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Tyler Durden / Zero Hedge:

Putting America's Tax Hike In Perspective — One of those occasions when one picture really does speak a thousands words. — Houston, we may have a spending problem. — Average: — Your rating: None Average: 4.9 (79 votes)

Discussion: National Review and Doug Ross

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:
FISCAL CLIFF DEAL: $1 IN SPENDING CUTS FOR EVERY $41 IN TAX INCREASES

Discussion: Chicago Boyz, Twitchy, Michelle Malkin and Patterico's Pontifications

David Brooks / New York Times:
Another Fiscal Flop

Discussion: Hot Air, Firedoglake, Right Wing News, The American Conservative and Prairie Weather

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:

House Passes Fiscal Cliff Deal — The House of Representatives gave final passage to the fiscal cliff deal Tuesday night. The final vote was 257-167.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Say Yes to the Mess — The fiscal cliff deal that the Senate …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

An Optimistic Take On the “Cliff” Deal — Here are some glass-half-full observations on last night's McConnell-Biden fiscal deal from an inveterate optimist. — Raising taxes on those who are already paying roughly double their fair share, while leaving everyone else's taxes the same, is lousy public policy.