Congress vote avoids 'fiscal cliff'

A weary Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation to avert the economy-threatening “fiscal cliff” of middle-class tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts today, hours before financial markets reopened after the new year holiday.

The Bill’s passage on a 257-167 vote in the House of Representatives sealed a hard-won political triumph for the president less than two months after he secured re-election while calling for higher taxes on the wealthy.