Wednesday, April 12, 2017

No new taxes

During the 1988 presidential election George H.W Bush had a very successful campaign that helped him win presidency. One of Bush's most famous quote is "read my lips: no new taxes". Some say that this is what helped Bush reach such high popularity and eventually led him to win the presidential election of 1988. However, what Bush did not realize at the time was that his promise was going to be a challenging one to keep. 

After a while, the U.S national debt began to increase and of course with Bush's promise of "no new taxes" it was getting impossible for the government to pay off their debt. Bush did not want the people to lose trust in him by raising taxes so instead he tried to negotiate with congress in order to make it seem as if it was congress that  had been the main factor in imposing new taxes. in other words, putting most of the blame on congress to save himself. 

Although Bush knew that new taxes was going to bring some conflict between him and the people he was ready to accept the consequences if it meant doing what was right for the country. Bush was only president for one term but economic consequences were not the only factors in him not serving another term. The way that Bush responded to the Persian Gulf War led to a huge loss in popularity due to his lack of help. His second campaign in 1922 was also not very successful and contributed greatly to Bush only serving for one term.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome post! I think Bush was a little unlucky during his term as president. While it was rash of him to promise no new taxes, he really was not given a choice in the decisions he made. It seems clear to me that he has the best intentions for the United States and its citizens. Also, when Bush didn't order to go in and completely destroy Iraq, while it seemed to many like it was a terrible decisions that made the war in vain, we know today that it was actually a good decision as a completely destroyed country would have become the responsibility of the USA to rebuild.

    You can read some of his accomplishments here:
    http://us-presidents.insidegov.com/q/21/9699/What-were-President-George-H-W-Bush-s-accomplishments

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  2. Interesting post about Bush's "No new taxes" promise. I find it interesting that, when he realized he had to raise money for the government somehow, he attempted to make it so that the blame for the new taxes would not be on him. In the end, he did what he did because it would benefit the country. Do you think it would be more important to hold an initial campaign promise or to break it for the sake of the country. For more information on afterthoughts of Bush breaking this promise, go to: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/04/former-president-george-bush-honored-for-breaking-new-taxes-pledge/gTMnk2hGmIbx4dlPsx8zTM/story.html

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