A change in how itemized deductions are calculated is raising concerns among economists and nonprofits that the government has unlocked a back-door revenue raiser and could hurt charitable giving. 
Vice President Joe Biden secured estate tax hikes as part of the final fiscal cliff package while employing a former top lobbyist for the life insurance industry, which is set to benefit from the legislation. 
My least favorite political cliché—that liberal donors don’t ask for anything in return for campaign contributions—was exposed as laughably false by the Kick the Can Down the Road Act of 2012, also known as the American Taxpayer Relief Act, or the “fiscal cliff deal.” 
Republicans expressed dismay at the amount of excessive spending in the fiscal cliff deal that Congress passed Tuesday evening. 
Without an extension of unemployment insurance as part of a fiscal cliff compromise, more than 2 million Americans, or roughly 43 percent of those receiving unemployment benefits, will lose Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits at the end of the year, according to a report from the Department of Labor. 
Democratic Party leaders on Tuesday signaled a willingness to accept an adjustment to Social Security benefits that New York Times’ columnist and amateur psychohistorian Paul Krugman has called “cruel and stupid.” 
Negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff entered a critical stage this week as the outlines of a potential compromise began to materialize. 