Letter from Washington

The leaves have not yet begun to change color along the Potomac, but there is no paucity of hues to Capitol Hill opinion on whether tax reform will make it by year’s end. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, no friend of the legislation, is predictably doleful. “Congress will go home for Thanksgiving even if tax reform has not passed the Senate,” he observes. “The House has had it for 11 months; it’s unfair to dump it in our laps right now and expect instant action,” he adds. “If the President wants us to work on it, we will, but there’s no guarantee that anything will be passed soon.”

To date, House Minority Leader Bob Michel’s troops have not been mobilized because Ways and Means, chaired by Dan Rostenkowski (D., Ill.), is still in the drafting phase. “We’re not going to swallow anything that comes our way and say, ‘This is tax reform, therefore it’s good for the country,’ ” says a senior Michel aide, speaking for the Leader. “We don’t know what they’re going to send up. Until we do, everything is at a standstill.”

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The leaves have not yet begun to change color along the Potomac, but there is no paucity of hues to Capitol Hill opinion on whether tax reform will make it by year’s end. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, no friend of the legislation, is predictably doleful. “Congress will go home for Thanksgiving even if tax reform has not passed the Senate,” he observes. “The House has had it for 11 months; it’s unfair to dump it in our laps right now and expect instant action,” he adds. “If the President wants us to work on it, we will, but there’s no guarantee that anything will be passed soon.”

To date, House Minority Leader Bob Michel’s troops have not been mobilized because Ways and Means, chaired by Dan Rostenkowski (D., Ill.), is still in the drafting phase. “We’re not going to swallow anything that comes our way and say, ‘This is tax reform, therefore it’s good for the country,’ ” says a senior Michel aide, speaking for the Leader. “We don’t know what they’re going to send up. Until we do, everything is at a standstill.”