In The News

By John S. Marshall, jmarshall@hcnonline.com

Congressman Kevin Brady is invoking the memory of former President Ronald Reagan as he works to drum up support for what he says would be the first major changes to the nation's tax system in more than 30 years – dramatic alterations that a Democratic challenger doubts will ever become law.

Speaking to about 100 people, a welcoming mix of business owners, local officials, nearby residents and others during a breakfast gathering at the plush April Sound Country Club on the edge of Lake Conroe Tuesday, Brady, R-The Woodlands, said he would be traveling with a team of tax writers and experts to California later in the day. In California, he will be giving a speech at the Reagan Ranch, the former so-called Western White House, Wednesday.

Brady's speech coincides with a remarkable day in 1986 when congressional Republicans and Democrats, who had been embroiled in a battle over taxes for nearly two years, finally reached a deal on what were dramatic changes to the nation's tax code.

"The reason we're going to that historic place (The Reagan Ranch) on that historic day is that 31 years earlier the House and Senate conferees reached agreement to deliver to President Reagan game-changing, bold tax reform," Brady said.

Brady's talk on Tuesday, a Conroe/Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce event that cost $20 to attend, comes a day ahead of the first town hall meeting held by a Tomball Democrat hoping to unseat Brady in the U.S. House of Representatives. Challenger Steven David is holding a public meeting, which is free to attend, at the considerably more austere Conroe Activity Center, Wednesday evening.

Since Congress passed and Reagan signed into law what was called the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the tax laws have been changed so frequently that Brady says "President Reagan wouldn't even recognize it."

"Our tax code has gotten bigger and bloated and full of Washington special-interest loopholes," Brady told the gathering Tuesday.

Brady, who chairs the powerful Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax-writing committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, says the GOP tax plan would reduce taxes for individuals and businesses, with a Texas family of four saving about $5,000 a year.

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