Word: reform
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Except that once in a great while the process does work that way. Thus it was with tax reform, a political miracle that was brought to the verge of fruition by an amazingly varied group of conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats. Some, like New Jersey Democratic Senator Bill Bradley and New York Republican Congressman Jack Kemp, were longtime crusaders. Others, like Ronald Reagan, who supported a 1981 tax bill that was laden with special breaks, were late converts. But eventually, though the public at times seemed skeptical, most politicians came either to favor the idea or to fear...
Befitting a miracle, the story of tax reform's triumph is a tale of repeated resurrections: almost every week over the past two years somebody has pronounced the idea dead. Indeed, there were many times during its tortured course that the bill really did seem ready for burial. It was repeatedly brought back to life by both Democrats, who control the House, and Republicans, who rule the Senate. Neither party dared to risk resisting an idea that seemed to develop a momentum all its own -- nor to hand the other party a powerful issue in an election year...
...Mubarak's recent pleas have garnered no new funds. The IMF, the U.S. and other Western governments instead have insisted that Egypt take bolder steps to reform its bloated, inefficient economy. They are pressing Cairo to encourage more private investment. But their most frequent target is Egypt's vast system of government subsidies, which could consume as much as $7 billion of the country's $15 billion budget this year. The subsidies are a growing burden, especially since Egypt's population, now 50 million, is increasing by 1 million people every nine months...
Mubarak has therefore inched cautiously toward reform. Gasoline prices have been raised twice in the past year. Electricity rates were hiked an average of 35% a year ago, and taxes on luxury imports have been imposed. Such steps are not nearly enough. Mubarak's dilemma is that sterner measures, which might save Egypt from the embarrassment of defaulting on its foreign loans, could provoke a popular uprising that the fundamentalists are poised to exploit...
That majority had new cause to complain about government promises of reform. Blacks learned that Botha's act on July 1 abolishing the pass laws that restrict the movement of blacks within the country did not end restrictions on the 4 million blacks in South Africa who are technically residents of four tribal homelands that chose to become so-called independent states: Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Venda. Despite government pledges that they could be granted citizenship in both their homelands and South Africa, they are now treated as aliens who must apply for residence and work permits whenever they move...