FROM WASHINGTON STRAIGHT

GEPHARDT’S GAMBIT

Still in the political intensive-care unit, the Democratic Party is looking for oxygen wherever it can find it. The telegenic and talented 44-year-old five-term Missouri congressman Richard Gephardt, now in his third month as Caucus Chairman (the fourth-ranking Democratic leadership post), is helping Democrats breathe a little easier. Gephardt’s ongoing claim to fame is the Bradley-Gephardt “Fair Tax,” which would limit income taxes to “14 per cent for four out of five Americans,” he says. The bill is one leg of the tax-reform triad that, with the Kemp-Kasten and Regan/Treasury versions, will doubtless be amalgamated into some kind of tax-reform blancmange before 1985 is over.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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GEPHARDT’S GAMBIT

Still in the political intensive-care unit, the Democratic Party is looking for oxygen wherever it can find it. The telegenic and talented 44-year-old five-term Missouri congressman Richard Gephardt, now in his third month as Caucus Chairman (the fourth-ranking Democratic leadership post), is helping Democrats breathe a little easier. Gephardt’s ongoing claim to fame is the Bradley-Gephardt “Fair Tax,” which would limit income taxes to “14 per cent for four out of five Americans,” he says. The bill is one leg of the tax-reform triad that, with the Kemp-Kasten and Regan/Treasury versions, will doubtless be amalgamated into some kind of tax-reform blancmange before 1985 is over.