An editorial in today's Wall Street Journal examines the evolving position that Senator Obama has taken on raising the capital gains tax rate.

Indeed, Mr. Obama should reconsider his belief that capital gains are mostly the province of the wealthy. Millions of middle-class Americans do in fact realize investment gains annually. In 2005, according to IRS data, 47% of all tax returns reporting capital gains were from households with incomes below $50,000, and 79% came from households with incomes below $100,000.

Mr. Obama no doubt will encounter questions again about his plans for taxing capital gains. The more he looks at the issue, the more we suspect he'll discover that it matters to the people whose votes he's seeking.

As this editorial points out, raising the capital gains tax rate is just one more example of how liberals are pushing to increase the tax burdern on working class Americans.  Ending many of the Bush tax cuts, raising the income cap on Social Security taxes, and raising the capital gains taxes may all be ways to grow the size of government programs, but will certainly not help grow the size of the American economy.

As health care also looks to be a prominent economic issue for some time to come, the Washington Post examines the health care plans put forward by the three major presidential candidates as Senator McCain unveiled his plan yesterday.

McCain's belief in the power of the free market to meet the nation's health-care needs sets up a stark choice for voters this fall in terms of the care they could receive, the role the government would play and the importance they place on the issue.

Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) have vowed government action to fulfill what they cast as a moral right for Americans to have health insurance. They favor mandates for coverage; McCain (R-Ariz.) proposes tax incentives. Obama and Clinton would impose new regulations on insurers; McCain's plan is designed to avoid direct regulation. The Democrats would build on the current employer-based system; McCain would shift to a more individual approach.

In a speech at a cancer research center here, McCain dismissed his rivals' proposals for universal health care as riddled with "inefficiency, irrationality and uncontrolled costs." He said the 47 million uninsured Americans will get coverage only when they are freed from the shackles of the current employer-dominated system.

McCain's prescription would seek to lure workers away from their company health plans with a $5,000 family tax credit and a promise that, left to their own devices, they would be able to find cheaper insurance that is more tailored to their health-care needs and not tied to a particular job.

Under McCain's plan, $3.6 trillion worth of tax breaks over a decade that would have gone to businesses for coverage of their employees would be redirected to individuals, regardless of whether they are covered by a company plan.

"Insurance companies could no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs," McCain said. "It would help change the whole dynamic of the current system, putting individuals and families back in charge, and forcing companies to respond with better service at lower cost."

Health experts predict a robust debate in the general-election campaign as anxiety about the cost of health care grows against the backdrop of a worsening economy, higher gasoline prices and rising unemployment.

Back in 1993, it was said of the Clinton national health care plan that it would combine the efficiency of the Postal Service with the compassion of the IRS at Pentagon prices.  The big government plans now being pushed by Senators Obama and Clinton do the same.  We need health care decisions made by doctors and patients, not by government bureaucrats who aren't answerable to their customers.