Your moron Congress at work. They are trying to balance the budget on the backs of retirees who have to live off their investments. When you have to sell your stock to take out your money to live on or pay for a catastrophic health care issue, you will be taxed FIFO (first in first out shares) so that your longest held shares with the greatest uptrend in value will bring in the most taxes. When you sell long term holdings most of it will be subject to an enormous tax bill.

This is a hidden tax increase on the retirees greatly increasing the capital gains tax that can be collected from you.