The fiscal cliff deal comes clearer: a 37% top tax rate and a higher Medicare eligibility age

[democrattotheend]

14. I predicted something like this a few days ago

I can't remember where I posted it, but I predicted that we would end up with a 37% tax rate for the top 2%, a 2-year hike in the Medicare eligibility age (most likely phased in over 5 or 10 years), a hike in the premiums for Medicare Part B for higher-income beneficiaries, and hopefully some stimulus.

A deal like that is not ideal, but it would be worth considering IF and ONLY IF it took away the debt ceiling as a political weapon, kept the scheduled hikes in the capital gains rate in tact (probably more important than top income tax rate, since most rich people make more in capital gains), and restored the domestic side of the scheduled sequester cuts. But I really hope they can come up with an alternative to raising the Medicare age. I agree that it's not the apocalypse (especially if it's phased in over 10 years), but it's a bad policy that will cause more pain to seniors than it saves the government.