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.

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.

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.

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.

We have serious concerns about how far this bill goes into issues completely unrelated to the illicit behavior Congress is attempting to stop.