To continue getting breaking news and the full stories from The Boston Globe, subscribe today.

The Boston Globe

National

The fiscal cliff by the numbers

The "fiscal cliff" is the series of automatic US budget cuts and tax increases slated to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2013, unless lawmakers can strike a deal on the budget deficit before year's end. The deadline arose out of a deal to end a prolonged standoff over raising the United States debt ceiling in August 2011. Here is a look at the fiscal cliff, by the numbers.

TAX INCREASES
More than $500 billion
The amount taxpayers will pay in increased taxes in 2013, due to the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and other tax increases, according to a Tax Policy Center analysis.
30 million
The number of people who will be subject to the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, up from 4 million currently, accounting for more than $221 billion in additional revenue for the United States between fiscal years 2012 and 2013, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.
$3,500 a year
The amount in increased taxes each household, on average, will pay in taxes in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center.
$2,000 a year
The amount in increased taxes a middle-income family will pay in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center.
$1,000 a year
The amount someone making $50,000 a year will pay a year from the expiration of a payroll tax cut — the 2 percentage point break in Social Security taxes enacted in 2010, which is set to expire at year's end.
$412 a year
The amount the lowest 20 percent of earners would pay more, on average, in taxes, the Tax Policy Center calculates.
$14,000 a year
The amount the top 20 percent of earners would pay on average in more taxes.
$121,000 a year
The amount the top 1 percent of earners would pay on average in more taxes.
SPENDING REDUCTIONS
$110 billion
The total amount of annual spending reductions that will kick in for 2013.
$55 billion
Half the spending cuts will come from the defense budget, which accounts for about a 10 percent decrease from its current funding.
$55 billion
The other half of spending cuts comes from domestic programs like highway funding, aid to state and local governments, and health research - a total reduction of around 8 percent.
$11 billion
Amount of cuts from a reduction in Medicare payment rates for physicians.
2 million
The number of people who will lose extended unemployment benefits, which provide up to 73 weeks of aid per unemployed job seeker. It will save $26 billion in spending.
OVERALL IMPACT
$607 billion
The amount the deficit will be reduced through the tax hikes and spending cuts.
3.4 million
The number of jobs that could be lost in 2013 due to the tax hikes and spending cuts, a Congressional Budget Office report estimates.
9.1 percent
The level that the US unemployment rate could rise to, up from the current 7.9 percent, according to a CBO estimate.
41,000
The number of jobs Massachusetts would lose over the next two fiscal years - the fifth most among states, according to a study prepared at George Mason University for the Aerospace Industries Association.
$200 million
The amount that Massachusetts teaching hospitals would lose through cuts to indirect Medicare support, which would cost the state 5,000 jobs. Only two other states would get hit harder.

SOURCES: Congressional Budget Office, Tax Policy Center, George Mason University for the Aerospace Industries Association, Associated Press, and Globe Staff reports

Tagging along with the in-laws on vacation

It was freezing and we wanted to get away. But we had committed to our regular summer weeks in the cabin and didn’t want to sell off the kids’ college funds to hit a beach. The solution: a tagalong trip.

Story 1 of 15

Read full story

Back in Time: the Tilton Arch

Charles Tilton had cash. Lots of it. His Gold Rush fortune paid for bridges, a new Town Hall, and public statuary throughout the hamlet named in his family’s honor. So when the wealthy benefactor wanted a memento of his trip to Rome in 1881, a mere postcard or souvenir ashtray wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, Tilton built a colossal memorial arch atop a 150-foot-high peak in close eyeshot of his grand mansion. Inspired by the Arch of Titus, the Concord granite monument overlooking downtown Tilton soars more than five stories high. Tilton dedicated the structure to his ancestors and hoped that, in contrast to its Roman counterpart, his arch would commemorate peace, not war.

Story 2 of 15

Read full story

Feel like you’re at the ocean’s bottom at Discovery Cove’s SeaVenture

People come to Orlando’s theme parks looking for a range of experiences from space travel to safaris to superheroic adventures. The one thing they probably don’t come for, especially during school vacation week, is sustained peace and quiet. But that’s a key part of what Discovery Cove delivers with its SeaVenture experience.

Discovery Cove is a SeaWorld sister resort (another sibling is Aquatica) where the illusion they’re selling is natural tropical paradise and marine wildlife sanctuary meets back-to-basics water park. The grounds are lush and manicured to rival the grand hotels of Hawaii. There’s a lazy river that winds around a good portion of the park’s 30 acres, including through an aviary where birds will eat out of your hand if you like.

Story 3 of 15

Read full story

James’s ‘Maisie’ translates nastily to modern family

“What Maisie Knew,” a modern-dress adaptation of the 1897 Henry James novel, is about the erosion of innocence entirely from the point of view of a 6-year-old girl .

Story 4 of 15

Read full story

‘The Painting’ is an animated work of art

Creative, colorful, and unexpectedly wise, “The Painting” is the latest offshore animation to show to kids burned out on computer-generated Hollywood toons.

Story 5 of 15

Read full story

Still fast, still furious, it all still hangs together

Vin Diesel and the “Fast & Furious” handlers seem eager to assert how they’ve molded a series of installments into, yep, a saga, complete with twisty continuity.

Story 6 of 15

Read full story

‘Leviathan’ is not just another fish tale

Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s unconventional and enthralling documentary is about a New Bedford-based fish trawler in the North Atlantic.

Story 7 of 15

Read full story

‘Epic’ only sees the big picture

Blue Sky Studios’ fantastical great-outdoors adventure needs to engage us far more powerfully for that hyperbolic title to fit.

Story 8 of 15

Read full story

Documentary skims the surface of the Williams sisters

Does the new documentary “Venus and Serena” pull back the curtain on who Venus and Serena Williams are and what drives them? Not so much.

Story 9 of 15

Read full story

Fertile ground for Dennis Quaid

“At Any Price” is worth seeing for Quaid tearing into his most complex role in years: Henry Whipple, an Iowa farmer, seed salesman for an agribusiness giant, and a hollow man.

Story 10 of 15

Read full story

Bringing ‘Midnight’s Children’ to screen

Almost any fan of “Midnight’s Children” will tell you there’s magic in the pages of Salman Rushdie’s iconic novel.

Story 11 of 15

Read full story

Little magic or realism to be found in ‘Midnight’s Children’

The effort to pack an already overstuffed picaresque epic into a film of more than two hours ends up an indigestible stew.

Story 12 of 15

Read full story

‘Frances Ha’ an exercise in watching Greta Gerwig

The movie’s a love letter to Greta Gerwig and her character, but by the end you may feel like an intervention is more in order.

Story 13 of 15

Read full story

Movie capsules: Short reviews of what’s in theaters

Capsule reviews of new and recently released movies.

Story 14 of 15

Read full story

Beacon Hill church director accused of stealing funds

Edward J. MacKenzie, 54, was indicted on charges of racketeering, extortion, bribery, and money laundering.

Story 15 of 15

Read full story