LAST EDITED ON 01-01-13 AT 05:18 PM (EST)

What the Senate Bill does and why the Tea Party will kill it:

Extends Bush-era tax breaks on incomes up to $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Earnings above those amounts would be taxed at a rate of 39.6%, up from the current 35%. Extends Clinton-era caps on itemized deductions and the phase-out of the personal exemption for individuals making more than $250,000 and couples earning more than $300,000.
(It's a tax raise!)

Estates would be taxed at a top rate of 40%, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates. In 2012, such estates were subject to a top rate of 35%.
(It's a death tax raise!)

Taxes on capital gains and dividend income exceeding $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families would increase from 15% to 20%.
(Hurts mythological job creators and job creation!)

Permanently addresses the alternative minimum tax and indexes it for inflation to prevent nearly 30 million middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from being hit with higher tax bills averaging almost $3,000.
(Are they trying to put tax accountants out of business? In this economy?)

Extends for five years Obama-sought expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, and an up to $2,500 tax credit for college tuition.
(Loopholes!)

Extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for one year.
(Nanny state!)

Blocks a 27% cut in Medicare payments to doctors for one year. The cut is the product of an obsolete 1997 budget formula.
(Well, and it was flawed from the outset anyway, though an effort at fiscal responsibility, which just goes to prove there is no such animal as fiscally responsible gubment, at least not Democratic ones.)

Allows a 2-percentage point cut in the payroll tax first enacted two years ago to lapse, which restores the payroll tax to 6.2%.
(Hurts small business!)

Delays for two months $109 billion worth of across-the-board spending cuts set to start striking the Pentagon and domestic agencies this week. Cost of $24 billion is divided between spending cuts and new revenues from rules changes on converting traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs.
(Not enough spending cuts!)