Fiscal Cliff Deal Results in Abuse of Language

From CNN: “Two hours after their midnight deadline, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a last-minute deal Tuesday to avert the feared fiscal cliff on a 89-8 vote.”

To put a charitable construction on it, they mean the deal was made at the last-minute and passed two hours after the deadline, but if you pass it after the deadline, is it really last minute? Isn’t it after the last-minute. And shouldn’t meeting a deadline with a legislative deal actually include passing the deal? In addition, the deal hasn’t yet passed. The house must still vote on it.

But what it tells me, and this is nothing new, is that you can’t trust things like the sequester, which was intended to force congress to actually do something. They just choose to ignore it.