Dead Center

In Washington last week Robert L. ("Muley") Doughton, chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, pulled his black slouch hat down over his gimlet eyes, picked up his grips in his ham-sized hands, and took train for his North Carolina tobacco-farming district.

Behind him he left one of the worst tax fiascos in Congressional history. With a clear mandate from the President to raise by any sensible means $16 billion in additional tax revenues, Congress had for weeks wasted its time in partisan debate over a proposal that was originally nonpolitical: the Ruml Pay-as-You-Go plan.

Last week the House defeated the plan (as embodied in the Carlson bill). The House also turned down the administration's bill, which would have imposed a 20% withholding tax, effective July 1, on top of normal taxes.

Tax legislation was right back where it was six months ago--with inflation gaining ground day after day.

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