"In addition, the Affordable Health Care Act imposes a dividend \"surtax of 3.8 percent on families making more than $250,000 a year, starting in 2013.

Other events that could combine to push the U.S. into the fiscal abyss:

The expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of 2012 would raise rates on capital gains, dividends, income and estates and other taxes.<" . . . . . .