Tax Reform: Brain-Dead

As session one of the 99th Congress draws to a close, the congressional docket is as bloated as the Potomac River after Hurricane Juan, with legislative flotsam so dense that tax reform has been all but choked off. Optimists here claim the odds are even that a bill will get out of the Ways and Means Committee sometime in December. If so, that legislation will be a far cry from Ronald Reagan’s reform proposal. Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D., Ill.) and other Democrats on the committee are defying the President by a) retaining full deductibility for state and local taxes, b) raising the top marginal individual tax rate above 35 per cent (probably to 38 per cent), and c) dropping Mr. Reagan’s proposed $2,000 personal exemption to $1,500 for those earning over $35,000 per annum.

Once again, the Democrats are thwarting the aims of the popular Mr. Reagan, and they will doubtless win the tax-reform battle. If the President rejects Rostenkowski’s alternative, Tip O’Neill can proclaim that the President really doesn’t want a tax package. Why? Because his rich friends would be hurt . . .

JM

About the Author

John McLaughlin

Featured Tags

As session one of the 99th Congress draws to a close, the congressional docket is as bloated as the Potomac River after Hurricane Juan, with legislative flotsam so dense that tax reform has been all but choked off. Optimists here claim the odds are even that a bill will get out of the Ways and Means Committee sometime in December. If so, that legislation will be a far cry from Ronald Reagan’s reform proposal. Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D., Ill.) and other Democrats on the committee are defying the President by a) retaining full deductibility for state and local taxes, b) raising the top marginal individual tax rate above 35 per cent (probably to 38 per cent), and c) dropping Mr. Reagan’s proposed $2,000 personal exemption to $1,500 for those earning over $35,000 per annum.

Once again, the Democrats are thwarting the aims of the popular Mr. Reagan, and they will doubtless win the tax-reform battle. If the President rejects Rostenkowski’s alternative, Tip O’Neill can proclaim that the President really doesn’t want a tax package. Why? Because his rich friends would be hurt . . .