31 Years Ago Today - The Last Wheezing Gasp Of Republican "Fiscal Responsibility"

[JHB]

November 5, 1990: President George H. W. Bush signs the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. Among its provisions, was the reform of the unsustainably low two-bracket (10%/26%, with the divider at roughly median income) income tax of the 1986 tax cuts to add a third bracket (of 31%) that kicked in at about double median income.

Why? Because Republican policies had ballooned the deficit and the only way to avoid budget cuts that no one would accept was to raise revenue.

Conservatives crucified him for it.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_my_lips:_no_new_taxes

Once in office, Bush found it challenging to keep his promise. The Bush campaign's figures had been based on the assumption that the high growth of the late 1980s would continue throughout his time in office.[9] Instead, a recession began. By 1990, rising budget deficits, fueled by a growth in mandatory spending and a declining economy, began to greatly increase the federal deficit. The Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act mandated that the deficit be reduced, or else mandatory cuts unpalatable to both Republicans and Democrats would be made. Reducing this deficit was a difficult task. New cuts of any substance would have to come either from entitlement programs, such as Medicare or Social Security, or from defense.[10]

The budget for the next fiscal year proved far more difficult. Bush initially presented Congress a proposed budget containing steep spending cuts and no new taxes, but congressional Democrats dismissed this out of hand.[citation needed] Negotiations began, but it was clear little progress could be made without a compromise on taxes. Richard Darman, who had been appointed head of the Office of Management and Budget, and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu both felt such a compromise was necessary.[11] Other prominent Republicans had also come out in favor of a tax increase, including Gerald Ford, Paul O'Neill, and Lamar Alexander.[12]

At the end of June, Bush released a statement stating that "it is clear to me that both the size of the deficit problem and the need for a package that can be enacted require all of the following: entitlement and mandatory program reform, tax revenue increases, growth incentives, discretionary spending reductions, orderly reductions in defense expenditures, and budget process reform."[13] The key element was the reference to "tax revenue increases" now being up for negotiation. An immediate furor followed the release. The headline of the New York Post the next day read "Read my Lips: I Lied."[14] Initially some argued that "tax revenue increases" did not necessarily mean tax increases. For example, he could mean that the government could work to increase taxable income. However, Bush soon confirmed that tax increases were on the table.[15]

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The reversal was used by the Democrats seeking their party's nomination, but it was first regularly used by Pat Buchanan during his primary election battle against Bush. Buchanan stated that Bush's reversal was one of his main reasons for opposing Bush. On the day he entered the race, he said it was "because we Republicans, can no longer say it is all the liberals' fault. It was not some liberal Democrat who said 'Read my lips: no new taxes,' then broke his word to cut a seedy backroom budget deal with the big spenders on Capitol Hill."[24] Buchanan subsequently made extensive use of the 1988 quotation in his New Hampshire campaign, repeating it constantly in both television and radio commercials. Buchanan won a surprising 40% of the vote in New Hampshire, a major rebuff to the President.

Buchanan was hardly the only one. Limbaugh and every other conservative media figure weighed in against Bush because "fiscal responsibility" was not and was never a real concern of conservative zealots. ("Reagan taught us that deficits don't matter" - Dick Cheney.) It's just a slogan to keep the squishy ones on board with their program and not backslide.