Rep. Robert Wexler , D-Fla., is the first Democrat to come out with a plan for "reforming" Social Security by, you guessed it, raising taxes. An analysis by the Employment Policy Foundation says Mr. Wexler's proposal would cost those earning above the current $90,000 cap an additional $24 billion annually. Some plan. ... Former Reagan adviser John B. Robert II says that unless clear thinking prevails in Congress, "American corporations will succeed in shifting their employee obligations from the private sector onto taxpayers." Capitalists, he says, "are urging socialist measures to address the looming pension crisis." Mr. Robert calls it "capitalist-socialism." Looks like we have a new Public Enemy No. 1. ... Heritage Foundation scholar Daniel Mitchell is warning that the value-added tax, or VAT -- a kind of national sales tax that's the darling of some conservatives -- "would prove irresistible to politicians looking for money to pay for new programs." Mr. Mitchell says it would only be "another burden on an already overtaxed economy." Politicians never seem to understand that, do they⢠.... Ronnie Earle, the Travis County, Texas, district attorney who's investigating House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, denies any partisan motives. But the Houston Chronicle says Mr. Earle was the featured speaker at a May 12 Democrat fundraiser and likened Mr. DeLay to a bully. We report, you deride.
