Word: rostenkowski
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Republican revolt six days earlier, the most far- reaching tax-reform plan since World War II passed the House last week and was sent to the Senate, which will take it up in 1986. The surprising bipartisan triumph by Reagan and Democratic Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski came during the prolonged and hectic finale of a year otherwise distinguished chiefly by the achievement of new levels of fecklessness in dealing with, or failing to deal with, the federal budget process...
...crusade for tax reform in May, he issued a challenge: "America, go for it." But the sweeping effort to slash rates by eliminating major tax breaks was eyed warily by a Congress that often seems beholden to special-interest groups. In the House, Reagan formed an awkward alliance with Rostenkowski, who proceeded to bargain with colleagues to produce a bill that preserved the thrust of the President's proposal but was speckled with special favors designed to make it politically palatable...
...push tax reform through the Democrat-controlled House, the President had taken a calculated gamble and formed an unholy alliance with Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, a bluff old-style Democratic pol. Though studded with deals and concessions to buy off various Congressmen and their constituencies, the tax package Rostenkowski wrung out of his committee last month was at least a reasonable facsimile of the reform proposal launched by Reagan with great fanfare last spring. Beset by conflicting advice from his aides, however, the President hesitated before endorsing Rostenkowski's bill two weeks ago, and even then his praise...
Meanwhile, a mutiny was brewing in the ranks of Republican House members. They felt ignored by the White House, and many considered Rostenkowski's bill antibusiness and hence a damper on growth. Reagan moved last week to try to bring the G.O.P. into line, but he faced determined opposition from Minority Leader Robert Michel of Illinois and the rest of the House Republican leadership...
...sudden pre-emptive strike, the G.O.P. leaders pushed their followers to vote against what is known as "the rule," the procedure by which the House was supposed to debate tax reform. The White House and Democratic chiefs wanted to hold a simple up-or-down vote on the Rostenkowski bill, as well as on a Republican alternative that was given no chance of passage. At a G.O.P. strategy session, however, Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi urged, "Let's kill this snake before it gets out of the hole." On the House floor, Republicans moved to do just that by insisting...