and along with the, perhaps better known bradley gephardt proposal. the congressional budget office did a famous eye by side of those two proposals and found that they actually looked quite similar. there were not the same, but they looked quite similar. you could take a look at that side by side and see how a deal could emerge. there was also agreement on a fundamental goal or parameter. democrats and republicans, not all, but most, agreed on the perimeter of revenue neutrality. that was very important, and i can tell you, having spent some time on the hill recently, no such agreement exists today. another key factor, the alignment of key institutional actors in the congress and in the administration, the house ways and means chair, senate finance bought atwood did not start out as a proponent of tax reform, but he got there. and that was significant. the house and senate leaders were on board to the extent -- valleys there were not telling to key committee chairs to keep their mouths shut and cease and desist. it was a very high level of interest in

in this room who remember the camp kasten proposal, and along with the perhaps better known bradley gephardt proposal, in late 1984 the congressional budget office did a famous side-by-side of those two proposals and found that it actually looked quite similar. the word for sympathy looked quite some tricky to take a look at that side-by-side and see how a deal could emerge. there was also agreement on a fundamental goal or parameter. democrats and republicans, not all of them but most of them agreed on the grammar of revenue neutrality. and that was very important. and i can tell you having spent some time on the hill recently, no such agreement exists today. another key factor come the alignment of key institutional actors in the congress and in the administration. the house and senate leadership were on board to the extent at least they weren't telling key committee chairs to keep their mouths shut, to cease-and-desist. of course, there was a very high level of interest under two treasury secretaries, don regan and jim baker. there was also a pageant and the very first major policy addres

mondale campaign were not amused to learn about the candidate's impending endorsement of the bradley-gephardt approach. there was a certain amount of pushback. i was called on the carpet and that was that. i don't think it is broadly illuminate about american public opinion. it is, i think, quite revealing about the interaction between the policy and the financial wings of a nascent presidential campaign and i suspect that not all that much as changed. does this say anything about risk-averse on the part of politicians? >> that's what they are, yes. that may have something to do with the difficulties of tax reform. >> other questions? yes, sir. >> thank you, my name is mark gallagher. i'm a fiscal advisor to a number of foreign countries working with imf, usaid and u.s. treasury. this has been a great presentation. i really appreciate it. i will not give a speech here. i just have a question. this is a country made up of peoples from all over the world but we just so narrowly gaze in our own history. the last tax reform we admit was not much of a reform was 1986. but we've had tax reform in s