202 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
of the comfortable and reduced rates for the middle class. It also shifted
some of the tax burden from individuals to businesses and, in retrospect,
even the IRS now concludes that “some of the over-reaching provisions of
the act also led to a downturn in real estate markets, which played a sig-
nificant role in the subsequent collapse of the Savings and Loan indus-
try.” In other words, a horse designed by a committee encountered the
Law of Unintended Consequences.
Gorton and Evans praised the Senate for “rising above special-interest
groups,” but felt let down by Packwood. With Gramm as an ally, they
wanted citizens of states like Washington and Texas with no income tax
to be able to deduct sales taxes from their federal income tax returns.
Packwood promised to support them, in return for their votes to defeat an
amendment on Individual Retirement Accounts. Then he laid low when
the Gorton-Gramm-Evans proposal was rejected.
“We were furious,” says Gorton. “So much for neighborly help,” says
Evans. In floor debate they pushed Packwood to fight for it in conference.
He agreed to make it a priority and put together a compromise that re-
stored 60 percent of the deductibility. In the end, the members of Con-
gress from big states, “for whom state income tax deductibility was life or
death,” prevailed.^14 The sales tax deduction ended up on the cutting room
floor. Brock Adams picked it up and had a field day asserting that Slade
and Dan were a pale imitation of Scoop and Maggie.^ Worse, all that hag-
gling, from spring to fall, left Gorton with little time for campaigning
back home. The red-eye weekend flights took their toll.^