Free Republic

<p>As President Reagan's birthday fast approaches, those who worked for him and others who cherish his contributions should redouble their efforts to preserve his legacy.</p> <p>Don't expect the academic community and professional writers to do that for us. University departments most likely to write the history of this era and to interpret Mr. Reagan's contributions tilt to the left. Respected writers, including Edmund Morris, are so jaded by enigmatic, Machiavellian figures they have difficulty understanding and appreciating a man who said what he meant and meant what he said.</p>

<p>The Senate's most powerful Republican plans to buck his party's anti-tax orthodoxy and propose a record tax-increase package that is more sweeping and richer than the $1 billion plan advanced by Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat.</p> <p>Sources report that Sen. John H. Chichester, R-Stafford, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wants the General Assembly to raise the sales tax a full percentage point, to 5.5 percent on the dollar, as well as boost taxes for affluent Virginians by adding at least one bracket to the income tax tables.</p>