The House Ways and Means Committee voted yesterday to "fix" the alternative minimum tax, but from my perspective the most important thing is how they did it [1]. The House plan sticks to paygo rules [2] by raising taxes paid by managers of investment firms to offset the $50 billion in lost revenue.

Now there's going to be an argument over whether using this particular tax to offset the AMT is a good deal [3] -- whether this tax on "carried interest" will do more harm than good. I'll let others [4] debate [5] that. But the fact that so far the leadership seems to be sticking to paygo [6] is a huge deal. Fixing the AMT is incredibly popular, supported by virtually all sides, and the temptation to do it regardless of the fiscal consequences is enormous. But if the government is going to get the national debt under control [7] and make a dent in the long-term fiscal problem [7], paygo [8]is critical [9]. We're just not going to solve the problem without it. So on that level this move is encouraging.