Congress, politics and the fiscal cliff

In the wee hours of January 1, the Senate passed legislation that would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans — those earning over $400,000, extend unemployment benefits for 99 weeks, and delay for two months $110 billion cuts to military and domestic programs.  The  House is expected to vote on the bill within the next few days though challenges remain to its passage in the highly divided legislative body.   While the bi-partisan deal prevented the country from going over the fiscal cliff, there is still much work to get done to get agreement on how to reduce the country’s massive debt.  We’ll get an update on the events on Capitol Hill from Washington Post congressional reporter ED O’KEEFE. Then, as the finger pointing continues, we’ll turn our attention to the state of affairs between Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the challenges of governing in a politically-divided country.   Our guests are Rutgers political scientist ROSS BAKER and Brookings congressional scholar WILLIAM GALSTON.

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)