The Tax Decade: How Taxes Came to Dominate the Public Agenda.

The 1980s, according to Eugene Steuerle, were "the tax decade" because "tax issues were to dominate the political agenda in a manner seldom, if ever, seen in the nation's history." As one of the principal economists involved in developing the Treasury Department's tax reform proposals, Steuerle provides a valuable perspective on the myriad federal income tax changes during this decade. His objectives are to document these changes and their impact, to analyze the events leading to this outpouring of major tax legislation, and to provide guidance for improving future budgetary policy. Not surprisingly, the heart of this book is an analysis of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86), "the most comprehensive reform of U.S. tax laws ever undertaken." The passage of TRA86 goes against the conventional wisdom that only incremental changes are possible in Congress, especially with a well-organized and financed opposition. Steuerle's book complements the recent political analyses of tax reform (Birnbaum and Murray, 1987; and Conlan et al., 1990) by focusing on the economic and fiscal changes that were a necessary prerequisite.

The central argument of this book is that the emphasis on tax policy in the 1980s was the result of …