Word: rostenkowskis
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...Rosty" the reformer? No one who has watched Congressman Dan Rostenkowski cut a deal with a colleague or swing a golf club with a lobbyist has ever called him that. Indeed, as a former Chicago ward heeler and protege of the late Mayor Richard Daley, he seems to be the quintessential machine pol. Yet, by the peculiar dynamic of politics, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has become the point man for the most ambitious attempt ever at overhauling the loophole-laden tax code. "The reform hat I am wearing is not yet comfortable," Rostenkowski cheerfully confessed...
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...
...minimum tax offends the tax-reform purists, who argue that it would leave the tax code just as complex and contorted, although perhaps a bit less egregiously unfair. "The weeds would be topped," says Rostenkowski, "but the roots would remain." Indeed, some see a minimum tax as a cynical ruse to avoid real tax reform. "Want to see a specialinterest lobbyist grin over his three-martini lunch?" scoffs a report released last week by the House Republican Conference. "Threaten him with a corporate minimum...
...Administration's givebacks, coupled with its decision to put off Reagan's tax-reform speech for a week until Congress finishes wrestling with the budget, have begun to deflate tax-reform proponents on Capitol Hill. "I'm losing my enthusiasm," says House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, whose backing is essential to tax reform. He is particularly put off by the Administration's cave-in to the oil lobby. "I told Jim Baker that the measure of the man will be where you go with energy. But that didn't penetrate...