[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 1, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S12091]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SENATOR BILL BRADLEY

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, nothing is typical about Bill Bradley, 
but some things are characteristic. As, for example, his article on the 
front page of the Washington Post's Outlook section this past Sunday. 
Just before the scheduled adjournment of the 104th Congress, bringing 
to an end for now his brilliant 18-year career as a U.S. Senator. The 
article is characteristically bipartisan: ``It's Government by Tax 
Break Again: Clinton and Dole Should Be Talking About Fairness and 
Loopholes, Not Cuts and Credits.'' It is our pleasant custom to ask 
that such articles be reprinted in the Record, and I make that request, 
with the text to be placed at the conclusion of my remarks. But the 
Senate will take the meaning from the title. Bill Bradley harkens back 
to the great 1986 tax reform bill, of which he, above all his 
colleagues, conceived, inspired, and helped to enactment. The 
principles were simple. First of all, above all, simplify. Two low 
rates. In that sense, cutting taxes. But paying for the lower rates by 
closing loopholes in the existing code which had acreted like a coral 
reef as Congress after Congress responded to the tiny this and the tiny 
that special interest, until a vast barrier separated the privileged 
from the people. I happened to be one of the core group that put 
together this legislation. We would meet early each morning in the 
office of Senator Bob Packwood, who was then chairman of the Finance 
Committee. My informal task was to provide a brief inspirational 
reading as the meeting commenced. It was then a simple task. I would 
simply glance through the previous day's Wall Street Journal looking 
for the best advertisement.
  Typically, it would have a headline: ``Guaranteed Losses'' In finer 
print one would learn that a sheep ranch in Idaho, an alligator ranch 
in Florida, an ostrich ranch in Kansas would assure investors immediate 
losses that could be offset against other income, which losses would be 
recouped at some future date. And that was where entrepreneurial energy 
was flowing. To guaranteed losses that the Internal Revenue Code would 
turn into profits. Bill Bradley changed that. But the work is never 
done, and so he leaves us still talking the responsibilities of 
citizenship and legislation.
  I will miss him as perhaps few others. We have served 18 years 
together on the Finance Committee. He has taught me; I have learned 
from him and followed him. And will continue to do so. Just last week, 
the Finance Committee convened for its last meeting of this Congress. 
Bill was asked to say a few words; which was all he ever will do. He 
recalled that in 1978 I came down to Princeton, NJ to campaign with him 
in that first campaign for the Senate. In the course of our stumping 
about, I urged him to try to get onto the Finance Committee, where so 
very much of the critical issues of American life are decided. He did 
and he showed why. I then recalled a passage from Woodrow Wilson at the 
time he was president of Princeton University. A student of the 
Presidency, Wilson was watching the growing intensity of presidential 
campaigns. Candidates did not, of course, did not then go to the 
conventions that nominated them, but after nomination were getting into 
the business of making speeches from the rear of railroad trains and 
all manner of stressful campaigning. Wilson wrote that if this should 
continue, we would be reduced to choosing our Chief Executives from 
``among wise and prudent athletes: a small class.'' I thought that 
then; I think it now, as we say farewell to Bill Bradley--for now.

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