A bit more austerity on the way, seems:

Bundle of Tax Breaks Again Set to Lapse

(WSJ) Congress appears almost certain to allow a batch of temporary tax breaks to lapse at the end of 2013. The breaks range from broad provisions such as research credits for businesses and a sales-tax deduction for individuals, to narrower ones such as a credit for buying electric motorcycles. The number of temporary tax breaks has snowballed from a handful in the 1980s to more than 50 now, and some lawmakers are beginning to think the package might have become excessive. While extending them for a year or two at a time has helped mask their price tag, the Congressional Budget Office said that if the existing temporary breaks were extended over the next decade, they would cost the U.S. government almost $1 trillion. To keep the package intact, lawmakers rely on a tactic known as logrolling, supporting each other’s priorities in order to preserve their own breaks.