The Nation - News from Sept. 8, 1985

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), predicting “it’s going to be mayhem around here,” said Congress will be so busy this fall with legislation on South Africa, school prayer, immigration and trade that there won’t be time to pass President Reagan’s proposed tax revisions. It was Dole’s most negative statement thus far on prospects for passage of a tax bill in 1985, the centerpiece of Reagan’s agenda in the opening year of his second term. But Dole said that Reagan might be able to speed things up with his “fall offensive.” When asked if he had heard a public clamor for tax revision during Congress’ August recess, Dole replied: “Clamor? I mean it’s dead silence . . . . I think people have other things on their mind.”