Word: rostenkowskis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...measure was drafted by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois and two Democratic colleagues, Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt. It would require countries that are running especially large surpluses in trade with the U.S. to begin reducing them immediately or face a stiff penalty: a 25% tariff to be imposed on the value of all goods that they continued to sell in the U.S. In its present form, the bill would apply to four nations: Japan (of course), Taiwan, South Korea and Brazil. Thus it would raise sharply the prices American consumers would...
Democratic leaders, who could hardly do otherwise, all praised Reagan's < push for reform -- in principle, at least. But on Capitol Hill, Rostenkowski warns, the tax-reform blueprint will be worked over by "535 independent contractors that all have an agenda of their own." Whether the final structure will stand, or even get finished, is highly uncertain...
With a Democratic-dominated House and a Republican-controlled Senate, tax reform cannot succeed without the support of both parties. In the afterglow of Reagan's speech, there were ritual promises of bipartisanship, but old rivalries and resentments are sure to resurface. Rostenkowski, for one, has some scores to settle with the Reaganauts. In 1981 they lured him into supporting tax cuts and then dumped his compromise bill to pass their own. Though he was all sweetness in his TV address, Rostenkowski is "irritated" that the Reaganauts did not include him in their final deliberations on the tax plan. "They...
...prime Rostenkowski target will be tax breaks for the oil and gas industry. Fairness is not his only motive. A chief defender of oil and gas interests in the House is Majority Leader Jim Wright of Texas, who also happens to be Rostenkowski's main rival to succeed O'Neill when he steps down as Speaker after next year. To defeat the heavily favored Wright, Rostenkowski may try to paint him as the captive of fat cats...
...Democrats have to contend with their own throng of special interests. Hundreds of lobbyists who failed to win concessions from the White House began lining up three hours early for the first congressional hearing on Reagan's proposal. "I'm walking in an egg field," frets Rostenkowski, a master of malapropism. He knows that a concession to one interest group risks antagonizing others...