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Fiscal cliff avoided, but cuts, deficit still looming
Reaction to approved deal mixed
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For Pat Freeman, the “fiscal cliff” isn’t over.“The revenue part is what passed this weekend but not the expenditures’ side,” said Freeman, CEO of Legacy Link Area Agency on Aging in Gainesville. “That’s what I understand ... they’ll be working on for the next couple of months.”And that’s got her concerned. Federal funding makes up nearly two-thirds of Legacy Link’s $9 million budget, which goes toward programs for seniors, including wellness services and nursing home transition.Reaction to congressional passage of a tax package over the New Year’s holiday varied from relief over most Americans’ averting a major tax hike to trepidation over what lies ahead with a batch of unsettled issues, particularly spending cuts, or sequestration, and the nation’s debt ceiling.“They did the popular thing ... but they didn’t do anything that’s going to reduce the size of the deficit,” said Charles Bullock, political scientist at the University of Georgia.“Initially, the package was going to include some tax increases but also spending cuts and they didn’t do any of it.