Biden, McConnell make big progress in cliff talks

“As McConnell said yesterday, we want to get this done but needed 

a dance partner. It looks like we got one with Biden.”

-- An unnamed Republican Senate aide

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden engaged in furious overnight negotiations, from midnight to 6:30 a.m. and made major progress in avoiding the fiscal cliff, according to Politico.
Citing sources “familiar with the discussion,” Politico reported that McConnell and Biden, who served in the Senate together for 23 years, may have brought the cliff talks back from the brink.
The deal calls for higher tax rates on income above $450,000, but no agreement yet on “turning off” the sequester cuts that would hit most federal departments hard, particularly the Pentagon, starting Jan. 2.