What you had at that time was a president really interested in tax reform and a very skillful Treasury secretary (James Baker) interested in advancing the ideal.

Getting rid of the AMT is a good and wonderful thing, ... But is it enough of a political gain to really drive this whole thing forward? I don't think it is.

Getting rid of the AMT is a good and wonderful thing. But is it enough of a political gain to really drive this whole thing forward? I don't think it is.

You had leaders in Congress -- Bob Packwood, a Republican chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Dan Rostenkowski, the Democratic chairman of House Ways and Means. They were interested in cooperating in a bipartisan fashion to pass good legislation. Obviously, there was something in it for them politically.

When you talk about a tax plan that has to make it through Congress, you can't alienate the blue states, because you need a lot of red votes in blue states to get it passed.

I'm in favor of change and reform. But it would be a totally negative impact on the east end of the valley (if the zone went away).