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.

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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.

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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.

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