Reagan Says All Aboard

But his ark faces rough sailing on the tax hike

In a whirlwind of high-pressure politics, Ronald Reagan was waging the most perilous and difficult fight of his presidency. The stakes were high. If he failed to persuade Congress to pass a deficit-checking $99 billion three-year tax hike, the already swollen tide of red ink in the federal budget would rise even higher, swamping hopes for economic recovery and threatening deeper recession. Politically, a President who seemed to have a magic wand for passing major legislation would have shown that he could no longer...

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