Power Elite: Rhodes Scholars With Enormous Influence
4. William Warren Bradley
Bradley was already an Olympic gold medal recipient for basketball when he began his study of politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford in 1965. He would have a Hall of Fame career in basketball before entering the Senate in 1978 and running as a presidential candidate in the 2000 primary.
As a Senator, Bradley acquired a reputation for being somewhat aloof and was thought of as a “policy wonk,” specializing in complex reform initiatives. Among them was the 1986 federal tax code overhaul, co-sponsored with Dick Gephardt, which reduced the tax rate schedule to just two brackets, 15 percent and 28 percent, and eliminated many types of deductions. Domestic policy initiatives that Bradley led or was associated with included reform of child support enforcement, legislation concerning lead-related children’s health problems, the Earned Income Tax Credit, campaign finance reform, a re-apportioning of California water rights, and federal budget reform to reduce the deficit; which in 1981 included supporting Reagan’s spending cuts but opposing his parallel tax cut package.Bradley was one of only three senators to take this position. He also sponsored the Freedom Support Act, an exchange program between the republics of the former Soviet Union and the United States.
