Photo by Chris Potter; courtesy of Creative Commons

UPDATE 8 p.m. PDT: Congress has finally passed legislation that prevents the country from going over the "fiscal cliff," at least for now. The House passed the deal passed by the Senate earlier this morning. CNN is reporting that only 85 Republicans voted for the plan, which originated in the Demcoratically controlled Senate. This deal generates new revenue by taxing the more fortunate Americans, but does not address the spending problem this country faces.

At 11:20 pm EST, the President started speaking from the James S.
Brady Press Briefing Room. He is happy that a deal has finally been
completed on a bi-partisan basis and praised Vice President Biden and
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). He said, "...I will sign legislation that
raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans..." Most small businesses
will not face an income tax increase; the president used the figure
"more than 97 percent."

President Obama mentioned during his speech that this plan brings in
$620 billion to a country that has a problem with spending. On that
issue, the president said, "...We can't not pay bills..."

Now that a deal is done, the president will finally have a chance to
return Hawaii to continue his vacation.

--Max Schwartz

--------

Despite internal opposition, House Republicans seemed ready to vote on a deal Tuesday night that would avoid the fiscal cliff and stave off tax increases for millions of Americans.

Talks stalled on Capitol Hill Tuesday, with conservatives within the Republican ranks balking at the version of the deal approved by the Senate the night before.

However, according to the Wall Street Journal, Speaker John Boehner convinced enough members to proceed with with an up or down vote Tuesday night: 

"But Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio), who didn't take a position on the bill, turned back conservative demands that the bill be amended to include more spending cuts. He argued that such changes risked killing the bill—and exposing the GOP to blame for tax increases, spending cuts and possible turmoil in the economy as a result.

That cleared the way for the House to vote on the bill late Tuesday. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said there was a 'strong majority' of Democrats who would support the bill and that she was 'confident it will pass' if it comes to a House vote."

Failure to reach a deal would have meant tax increases to even those Americans who made less than $500,000. A report by the AP said the fiscal cliff existed to have Republcians and Democrats compromise to avoid such scenarios:

"To end a 2011 standoff over raising the federal debt limit, they agreed to a Jan. 1, 2013 deadline to reach a deal over taxes and spending. If they didn't, more than $500 billion in tax increases would hit the economy in 2013 alone, along with $109 billion in cuts from the military and domestic spending programs. The sharp tax hikes and spending cut would threaten to send the economy over the cliff and back into recession."

If, as expected, the Boehner compromise holds, the vote on the fiscal cliff deal will take place shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern.

 Read more of Neon Tommy's fiscal cliff coverage here.

Reach Executive Producer Salomon Fuentes here; Follow him on Twitter here.