"[New federal taxes to be paid by high-income taxpayers] should be taken into account, not just as a means of mediating the differences between the [fiscal cliff] negotiating parties, but because failing to do so undercuts the implied moral underpinning of the Obama position that one who does not pay a new, stipulated higher rate of federal ordinary income tax is not contributing his fair share to the public fisc, notwithstanding the payment of other new, higher federal taxes equivalently enhancing the fisc.... One tax in particular introduced in the health care reform legislation is especially well suited to the proposition, a 3.8% tax on net investment income (misleadingly labeled in the law as a 'Medicare contribution') that comes into force in 2013 at income levels matching exactly the $250k/$200k figures that have been the battle cry of Obama in the fiscal cliff war of words.... The AMT 'patch' also lends itself to being ready-made to contribute in much the same way to resolution of the current fiscal crisis deadlock."

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