Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider  Posted: 9:39 p.m. Wednesday,
Jan. 2, 2013  Cost of the fiscal cliff deal   By Jamie Dupree
As with most things in Washington, D.C. and the Congress,
sometimes there isn't an easy political answer to something as
simple as the cost of a piece of legislation. That's very true
with the fiscal cliff deal approved this week.   The
Congressional Budget Office review said the deal to extend most
of the Bush tax rates would raise the deficit by $4 trillion
over ten years, a fact that was repeated by a number of
Republicans who voted against the agreement.  The irony of that
is Republicans usually criticize the CBO for making such
projections on tax cuts, arguing that it is wrong to assume that
just because you cut taxes, then less money will come into the
Treasury, as the GOP argues tax cuts will stimulate growth and
bring in more revenue.  The $4 trillion in higher deficits is
somewhat misleading in one sense, because that involves a
scenario where the Bush tax rates and cuts all