Averting the looming fiscal cliff

In the last few weeks, Congress has been focused on keeping taxes from increasing and putting the U.S. government on a sustainable path toward growth and prosperity.

Over long days and late nights, including New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, we worked on plans to avert the “fiscal cliff” – automatic tax increases (more than $3,000 for the average family in Eastern Washington) and spending cuts – that economists predicted would push the country back into recession and higher unemployment.

The good news is that we didn’t go over the cliff – we passed tax cuts for 98 percent of taxpayers – the l...