Shifts in the Political Alignments

The balance of political and economic power in the nation’s capital is in flux. By the end of the 1985 session of the 99th Congress, the House had passed a tax reform bill shifting—over the next five years—$140 billion of the nation’s tax burden from individuals to corporations, and eliminating entirely the tax liabilities of six million workers at or below the poverty level. At the same time, Congress enacted the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget amendment sharply reducing federal...