Twitter interest in 'fiscal cliff' lower than election

Many Twitter users spent the beginning of the new year concerned that the country would fall over the "fiscal cliff," according to new data released by the social network on Wednesday.

Twitter said 1.4 million tweets mentioning "fiscal cliff" or the hashtag #fiscalcliff were sent in the last 30 days, with about one-third of that total sent in the last week alone.

That total indicated that many Twitter users were aware of negotiations, which broke for Christmas but dominated the holiday week on Capitol Hill, but even for nearly a monthlong tally it is well below the number of tweets generated by the individual presidential debates last autumn, by the nominating conventions or on Election Day.

Use of "fiscal cliff" in tweets steady increased from Dec. 29 until Wednesday, according to analytics by Topsy. Other popular related terms included "tax hike," which President Obama has used frequently in tweets about negotiations, and "Congress," which was under pressure to pass legislation before the year-end deadlines.

Technically, Congress missed the deadlines and fell over the "fiscal cliff" at the end of 2012. The Senate passed a tax bill addressing the major issues, automatic cuts triggered by the sequestering process and the expiration of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, on New Years Day. Then the House passed the same measure late Tuesday.

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