Fiscal cliff battles to continue despite deal The bill tackles the most sensitive issue, higher taxes. It would boost the top 35 percent income tax rate to 39.6 percent for households making more than $450,000 a year, while continuing decade-old income tax cuts for everyone else. In his re-election campaign last year, Obama had wanted higher taxes for households making more than $250,000 a year. Scores of Republican lawmakers voted for the measure, reversing a quarter-century of solid opposition by their party to raising any tax rates at all. I'm embarrassed for this generation. Future generations deserve better," said one Republican opponent, Louie Gohmert. The most powerful Republican in Congress, House Speaker John Boehner, voted for the bill, an unusual step because speakers seldom vote. Republicans, who control the House, voted against the measure by a 151-85 margin, but Democrats in the House voted by an overwhelming 172-16 for the agreement. Supporters of the bill in both parties expressed regret that the bill was narrowly drawn and fell far short of a sweeping plan that combined tax changes and spending cuts to reduce federal deficits. Another round of fighting about the deficit is coming almost as soon as the new Congress convenes. The Treasury is expected to need an expansion in borrowing authority in the next few months, and funding authority for most government programs is set to expire in late March. Republicans have made it clear they intend to use those events as leverage with the administration to make cuts to the Medicare health care program for the elderly and other government benefit programs. "Now the focus turns to spending," Boehner said after the House vote. The American people re-elected a Republican majority in the House, and we will use it in 2013 to hold the president accountable for the 'balanced' approach he promised, meaning significant spending cuts and reforms to the entitlement programs that are driving our country deeper and deeper into debt.