Congress has approved a deal that has increased taxes on the wealthy and cut spending marginally. There are $48 in tax increase for every dollar in spending decrease in the plan. I for one have doubts that there will be any deficit or debt decrease.

Some Republicans, who went along with the Democrat bill tried to make it out to look like this was a tax cut because the bill preserved Bush’s tax cut for most of the taxpayers. But as the Washington Post reports:

The bill will indeed shield millions of middle-class taxpayers from tax increases set to take effect this month. But it also will let rates rise on wages and investment profits for households pulling in more than $450,000 a year, marking the first time in more than two decades that a broad tax increase has been approved with GOP support.