Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives canceled the vote on their proposal to avoid the "fiscal cliff", having failed to gather enough support among their ranks to approve it. In any case, the vote would have been exclusively symbolic, given that the White House had clearly expressed its opposition to the project, which renewed the tax benefits granted by George W. Bush to families with incomes exceeding one million dollars and would never have passed the test of Senate.
However, the developments in the story were not appreciated by the market, given that time is running out and negotiations to avoid the sudden increase in taxes and the simultaneous cut in spending now appear to be stalled. The Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner, has allowed the deputies of his party to go home until after Christmas.
Meanwhile, a statement from the White House underlines that “the president's main priority is to ensure that taxes do not rise overnight for 98% of Americans and 97% of small businesses. The president - continues the note - will work with Congress to do this and we hope to reach a bipartisan solution quickly to protect the middle class and our economy.
