Word: rostenkowski
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Champagne corks were popping merrily in the Oval Office late Wednesday afternoon when the call came from the vanquished to the victor. "Well, Mr. President, you're tough," said Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. "You beat us." Indeed he had, and with surprising ease. In the final legislative battle over Ronald Reagan's economic program, 48 House Democrats had deserted their party to help the President win a 238-to-195 victory on a vote for a bill that provides the largest tax cut in U.S. history. The same...
...working man, especially if his line of work involves owning oil companies, the Democratic "alternative" was no such thing, crammed with business breaks designed to gain the support of Southern Democrats and skewed to the laboring classes just enough that Daley machine veteran Dan Rostenkowski could mouth some ancient pieties...
...parties in Congress as matters of lofty principle, were degenerating last week into a petty pursuit of votes in which special interests were courted with particular tax breaks. "It's terrible that we should be involved in a bidding war," admitted House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski. "But it all depends on whether you want to lose courageously or to win. I like to win." In fact, except for various tacked-on goodies and a Democratic edge in generosity toward the poor and middle class, the emerging Administration and Democratic tax bills contain few practical differences...
Still, the sweeteners amount to more than a jar of jelly beans. Some were a shade outrageous. Rostenkowski, who has been saying that the G.O.P. version favors Big Business and wealthy individuals, protected a tax write-off for some 2,500 commodities dealers who straddle the market through offsetting buy and sell orders. Not surprisingly, the commodities market is based in Rostenkowski's home city of Chicago. Republicans offered a special deduction to truckers, who were strong supporters of Reagan's candidacy...
That afternoon, Rostenkowski produced one. He persuaded all 21 Democratic Ways and Means Committee members attending a special meeting to vote for a 5-10 cut and, moreover, to make it across the board rather than targeted. At that point the Democrats had agreed to give Reagan about three-quarters of what he wanted. But the White House had already decided, Meese notwithstanding, to go for the remaining onequarter...