The House vote was 257 to 167 in favor of the legislation, which then went to Obama for him to sign. The vote took place less than a day after the legislation was approved overwhelmingly by the U.S. Senate. John Boehner, the Speaker of the House and most other GOP leaders did not take any public position on the legislation and did not offer any public comment prior to the vote that took place at 10:45 pm.

Boehner did not even deliver his closing argument, as he left Republican Dave Camp, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to defend the legislation as America’s largest tax cut in history.

The new legislation will shield millions in the middle class from increases in taxes that were set to go into effect in January. However, it also lets rates increase on investment profits and wages for those households that earn over $450,000 per year. It marked the first time in over two decades that tax increases on a broad scale had been approved thanks to support from the GOP.

The new measure also keeps flowing benefits to over 2 million Americans who are unemployed and were on the verge of having their federal checks stopped. It will also delay for another two months, cuts in the Pentagon and other federal agencies that were set to take place as of Wednesday.

GOP lawmakers in the end decided it was best not to gamble and possibly force the nation into tax increases that would leave Republicans to face the blame.

Stock futures in the U.S. were lower on Friday as fears increase over the impact of the cliff, if no deal is reached.

President Obama along with leaders in Congress will discuss the current impasse in negotiations on Friday at a meeting in the White House, while the House of Representatives are scheduled to return to work on Sunday. If a deal is not reached on the fiscal cliff, the economy in the U.S. could be pushed into a double-dip recession.

Investors hope that leaders of Congress and the President can reach some type of breakthrough to postpone some of the spending cuts and tax hikes that are scheduled to automatically take affects as of January 1.

Anxiety over the uncertainty has taken a big toll on financial markets. Stocks were in sell off mode for four consecutive sessions, as hopes have diminished for a budget agreement and all three U.S. indexes are headed for month’s end in the red.

In Friday’s premarket trading Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were all down. On Thursday, bank stocks were some of the biggest drags on the financial market. Stocks were slightly down overall on Thursday, as the news that the House was returning on Sunday helped spark a slight rebound during the days last hour of trading, helping the Dow come back from a loss of 151 points.

The trip has angered Republicans, with John Boehner, the Speaker of the House calling it nothing more than a victory lap for his reelection. Boehner on Thursday rejected the proposals sent by Obama to help avoid the fiscal cliff, the combination of spending cuts and tax increases set to start in January.

Boehner has confronted challenges from Democrats and from some of his fellow Republicans, who are advocating for greater flexibility in responding to demands from Obama that they approve increases in taxes for the high wage earner and extend tax cuts for those in the middle class. The majority of Republicans are against any type of increase in tax rates.

The Republicans are not happy with the opening bid by Obama for measures on deficit reduction, which have been drawn for the most part from previous budget proposals by the president.

However, they are eyeing markets and the public opinion polls that indicate the public most likely will blame the Republicans if the end of the year is reached with no deal in place and the fiscal cliff takes place possibly throwing the country into a recession.

Republicans say the president is setting them up as the fall guy  for the fiscal cliff because they believe the president will benefit from the country going over the cliff or if he is able to broker a deal to avert it.

Carney said the drivers of the federal deficit had to be addressed and Social Security is not one of those drivers. The retirement program for seniors will be solvent for 21 more years. At that time, recipients might be faced with receiving less benefits.

The Senate’s number two Democrat, Richard Durbin from Illinois took a similar position on Sunday saying Social Security does not add anything to the debt, not one cent.

However, Republicans insist that reforming all the entitlement programs, and they include Social Security, which amounts to over 1/3 of all government spending, must be included in the fiscal cliff equation if the Republicans are to go along with increasing revenue through limiting loopholes and tax deductions.

Lindsey Graham and South Carolina Republican Senator said entitlement reform could not be looked at without adjusting the retirement age. He does not expect Democrats to go for a voucher plan or premium support, but did expect them to make adjustments to certain entitlement programs prior to bankrupting the country.

Mitch McConnell the Republican Leader of the Senate put the onus on President Obama to meet in the middle with the Republicans. McConnell said the Republicans had been clear in what they wanted and what they are willing to do and yet there remains an impasse.

A pledge that is decades old from the group American for Tax Reform has 238 House member signatures and 41 signatures in the Senate in the current Congress. It has essentially become impossible for a GOP member seeking national or statewide office to escape in recent elections, especially in the lower chamber, which is controlled by the Republicans.

Both Senator Lindsey Graham and Peter King a Representative from New York on Sunday said they were going to accept new tax changes by breaking the pledge to help generate additional revenue to lower the federal deficit.

Their two statements followed one that was similar last Thursday by Senator Saxby Chambliss a Georgia Republican. King said he completely agreed with Senator Chambliss when he appeared Sunday on Meet the Press. He said a pledge someone signed 18 to 20 years ago was for that Congress, not today’s. King said the world is different today and the situation with the economy is different.

The Congressman from New York said he opposed increases in taxes but everything needed to be on the table when a deal is brokered by President Obama, Harry Reid the Majority Leader in the Senate and John Boehner the Speaker of the House.

If the White House and Congress fail in reaching a compromise, a mixture of $500 billion in tax increases and federal cuts would take place on January 2.