In contemplating the Republican effort to craft a plan to revamp the U.S. tax code, one unmistakable reality comes into focus: The Democrats have won the debate. That became clear with reports that congressional Republicans currently plan to keep the top individual tax rate at 39.6 percent. The significance of this can be understood only through a review of events and developments surrounding tax policy during the Reagan years in the 1980s.
It must be noted, in this context, that the lessons of Reaganism in our own day, some 30 years after he left politics, are limited. We live in a different time, and many of his policies bear little relevance to our own circumstances. His 1988 immigration plan, for example, was a disaster, with its amnesty program that has poisoned the country’s immigration politics ever since. Similarly, his free trade advocacy, while perhaps right for his day, has been superseded by intervening events.
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