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For the weeks leading up to New Year's Day 2013, the talk was not of ball drops, fireworks or New Year's resolutions. Instead, it was about the "fiscal cliff;" when the largest tax increase in American history and across the board spending cuts would take effect and threaten to tip America's weak economy back into recession.
Congress knew this cliff was coming for more than a year. In fact, it was a cliff of Washington's own making. That is why the House got to work to avert the cliff months ago. In June, we voted to replace the across the board spending cuts with more targeted reductions. In August, we voted to extend tax relief for all Americans, which was set to expire on January 1 and would have resulted in an enormous tax increase on everyone.
Unfortunately, just because the House gets its work done doesn't mean the rest of our nation's leaders have to follow our lead. So the bills thoughtfully crafted and passed by the House sat untouched in the Senate and ignored by the President. Instead of leading, the President chose to posture and play political games with hardworking American families. It wasn't until we were nearly over the cliff that the Administration got truly engaged and a deal was brokered.
I will be the first to admit that the deal that is now law is flawed, and is an unfortunate example of how politics are getting in the way of common sense policy. However, faced with the choice of allowing taxes to go up on every taxpayer in America or enacting permanent tax relief for 99 percent of them, I chose the latter. I want to make it clear that had Congress done nothing, middle class families in South Dakota
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