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Bill Gradison
Willis David "Bill" Gradison Jr. (born December 28, 1928) is an American politician from Ohio who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1993.
Gradison, a Republican, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Walnut Hills High School and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1949, a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration in 1951, and a doctor of commercial science degree from the Harvard Business School in 1954.
Gradison worked as an investment broker and then served as assistant to the undersecretary of the treasury (1953–1955), and assistant to the secretary of health, education, and welfare (1955–1957).
He was then elected to the Cincinnati city council, on which he served from 1961 to 1974. This service included a term as mayor of Cincinnati in 1971 (a position that at the time rotated among council members). Gradison was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and began serving in 1975 (94th Congress). He was the first Jewish Representative elected to the U.S. Congress from Ohio. He began representing Ohio's 1st district, but after the 1980 census, he and Tom Luken effectively switched districts, with Gradison's district renumbered as the 2nd district. He served until 1993, when he resigned to accept the position of president of the Health Insurance Association of America.
The 1981, 1984, and 1986 tax acts and the 1983 Social Security Act were some of the most important legislation initiated by the Ways and Means Committee during the 1980s.
In Congress, Bill was a member of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, during the 95th through the 101st U.S. Congress, and was closely involved in many successful legislative efforts. One effort was the original sponsorship of the bill providing the income tax indexing clause that was later inserted into President Reagan's famous tax reduction bill of 1981, called The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. This indexing made it so that income tax brackets would automatically be moved up as the inflation rate rose, so that "bracket creep" would be avoided, whereby income tax rates rise only because of inflation, not because of a rise in deflated income levels. This addition to the 1981 tax bill was very popular, as indicated by its co-sponsorship by a majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives (sponsorship by a majority of members indicates the bill would be passed if put up for a vote on the House floor).
Indexing of taxes became a part of a substitute tax bill, backed by President Reagan in a July 27, 1981 evening address to the nation, and known as the Conable-Hance Substitute Tax Bill, H.R. 4260. Instead of the one year tax cut bill sponsored by Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, or the two-year tax cut bill sponsored by the Senate Finance Committee Chair Bob Dole, the substitute bill was a three-year 25 percent tax cut, with federal estate tax relief and the indexing of tax rates to prevent bracket creep beginning in 1985. And this substitute bill became The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. It was followed by years of widespread tax elusion efforts which eventually triggered legislative countermeasures.
Gradison also served as ranking Republican of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security during the Social Security system reform of the early 1980s, and in particular when the Social Security Reform Act of 1983 was passed into law. Included in the 1983 reform act were provisions that Gradison had originated as U.S. Bills. One such provision mandated the computerization of the death certificates of Social Security beneficiaries in order to avoid fraudulent continued payment of benefits when the beneficiary was already deceased. And another such provision included in the 1983 reform act, which was first introduced by Gradison as a U.S. House Bill, was to place the Social Security Trust Funds "off-budget", out of the general Treasury revenue budget, in order to avoid politicizing the reform process of the Social Security system.
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Bill Gradison
Willis David "Bill" Gradison Jr. (born December 28, 1928) is an American politician from Ohio who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1993.
Gradison, a Republican, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Walnut Hills High School and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1949, a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration in 1951, and a doctor of commercial science degree from the Harvard Business School in 1954.
Gradison worked as an investment broker and then served as assistant to the undersecretary of the treasury (1953–1955), and assistant to the secretary of health, education, and welfare (1955–1957).
He was then elected to the Cincinnati city council, on which he served from 1961 to 1974. This service included a term as mayor of Cincinnati in 1971 (a position that at the time rotated among council members). Gradison was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and began serving in 1975 (94th Congress). He was the first Jewish Representative elected to the U.S. Congress from Ohio. He began representing Ohio's 1st district, but after the 1980 census, he and Tom Luken effectively switched districts, with Gradison's district renumbered as the 2nd district. He served until 1993, when he resigned to accept the position of president of the Health Insurance Association of America.
The 1981, 1984, and 1986 tax acts and the 1983 Social Security Act were some of the most important legislation initiated by the Ways and Means Committee during the 1980s.
In Congress, Bill was a member of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, during the 95th through the 101st U.S. Congress, and was closely involved in many successful legislative efforts. One effort was the original sponsorship of the bill providing the income tax indexing clause that was later inserted into President Reagan's famous tax reduction bill of 1981, called The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. This indexing made it so that income tax brackets would automatically be moved up as the inflation rate rose, so that "bracket creep" would be avoided, whereby income tax rates rise only because of inflation, not because of a rise in deflated income levels. This addition to the 1981 tax bill was very popular, as indicated by its co-sponsorship by a majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives (sponsorship by a majority of members indicates the bill would be passed if put up for a vote on the House floor).
Indexing of taxes became a part of a substitute tax bill, backed by President Reagan in a July 27, 1981 evening address to the nation, and known as the Conable-Hance Substitute Tax Bill, H.R. 4260. Instead of the one year tax cut bill sponsored by Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, or the two-year tax cut bill sponsored by the Senate Finance Committee Chair Bob Dole, the substitute bill was a three-year 25 percent tax cut, with federal estate tax relief and the indexing of tax rates to prevent bracket creep beginning in 1985. And this substitute bill became The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. It was followed by years of widespread tax elusion efforts which eventually triggered legislative countermeasures.
Gradison also served as ranking Republican of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security during the Social Security system reform of the early 1980s, and in particular when the Social Security Reform Act of 1983 was passed into law. Included in the 1983 reform act were provisions that Gradison had originated as U.S. Bills. One such provision mandated the computerization of the death certificates of Social Security beneficiaries in order to avoid fraudulent continued payment of benefits when the beneficiary was already deceased. And another such provision included in the 1983 reform act, which was first introduced by Gradison as a U.S. House Bill, was to place the Social Security Trust Funds "off-budget", out of the general Treasury revenue budget, in order to avoid politicizing the reform process of the Social Security system.