I hadn’t seen this post by Noam Scheiber until now. He has a far harsher take on the deal. But at the end, he and I seem to have a fairly similar take, which is that the deal itself isn’t too bad purely on its own terms. What’s worrisome is what it portends about the next confrontation and the one after that. Read More

White House and GOP reach fiscal cliff deal.

Wary Democratic senators needed a lot of reassurance from Vice President Biden Monday night that his fiscal cliff deal doesn’t set them up for another round of debt ceiling hostage-taking in a few weeks.

The Senate is still on track to vote on the fiscal cliff deal before dawn, in the wee hours of New Year’s Day. Stay tuned and … Happy new year, y’all!

The final vote was 89-8.