"The argument of this article is that there are already enacted a considerable number of new tax measures that will begin to fall in 2013 only on the very taxpayers who are in the President's target area, thus accomplishing Obama's goal and greatly reducing the principal obstacle to the negotiators averting the fiscal cliff.... [Two] increases in the Medicare tax go into effect next year under the health care reform law ... Nothing of these two appears to have been mentioned in the public prints or TV talk shows, or even in statements by the GOP leadership, in connection with the fiscal cliff issue; but these two tax increases properly should be included among the tax jumps in 2013 that build up the cliff just as certainly as the elimination of the Bush tax savings [and] the Budget Control spending cuts: [1] A 0.9 percent rise in the Medicare portion of the self employment tax, from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent on earnings in excess of $250,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly, $125,000 for married taxpayers filing separately, and $200,000 for all other taxpayers; and [2] A tax on what is termed in the law Net Investment Income[.]"

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