UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 8
October 24, 1996
Book looks at tangled tax system

     In his new book, The Failure of U.S. Tax Policy: Revenue and
Politics, assistant professor of business law and tax attorney
Sheldon Pollack examines how our present tax system got to be the
"out-of-control," overly complex, tangled mess it is today.
     Pollack details the explosion of tax legislation in the
1980s, during the Reagan years that first lowered taxes- giving
special interests big tax breaks-then raised them when the
deficit soared and the political climate changed.
     Pollack identifies the roles that Bill Clinton and Bob Dole
played in formulating tax policy during the past two stormy years
after the 1994 elections gave the Republican Party control of
Congress.
     In a postscript, Pollack assesses the prospects for
"reforming" the tax system by replacing the progressive income
tax with a flat tax.
     The Failure of U.S. Tax Policy: Revenue and Politics is
published by Pennsylvania State University Press.
                                                -Barbara Garrison