So we are to have a European-style value-added tax (VAT). That's the emerging consensus in Washington as people come to recognize the reality of the deep financial hole into which the Obama administration has dug us.

The Congressional Budget Office reckons we will be Greece by the end of the decade, owing the world—mostly the Chinese—a sum equal to 90% of our gross domestic product. The rating agencies are warning that our AAA rating is at risk. The bond vigilantes are saddling up.

No surprise the administration's first step has been to soak the rich, using the health bill to increase taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends by high-income earners, to be followed by an increase in their marginal income tax rates to 39.6% from 35% (and their long-term capital gains rate to 20% from 15%) by year's end.  More here from The Wall Street Journal.