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In eulogy, Alan Simpson praises George H.W. Bush for raising taxes (after "read my lips")
The Washington Times ^ | December 05, 2018 01:35 PM | Philip Klein

Posted on 12/05/2018 11:37:27 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson on Wednesday used his eulogy of George H.W. Bush as an opportunity to praise the former president for agreeing to raise taxes despite campaigning against it as a candidate.

Simpson, who co-chaired a 2010 commission aimed at reducing the debt through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, recounted how Bush came to support a 1990 budget deal that raised taxes.

“Congressional participants drafted a remarkable bill that dealt with two-year budgeting, entitlement reform, comprehensive and catastrophic healthcare, Social Security solvency, and much more,” he said. “But it required a critical ingredient called 'revenue,' translated into the word 'taxes,' translated into the words ‘read my lips.’”

Simpson was referencing Bush’s famous pledge during the 1988 campaign, “Read my lips, no new taxes.”

He continued, “The group went to George and said, ‘Look, we can get this package done, but we must have some revenue.’ And he said — and I'll never forget it — he said, 'What I have said on that subject sure puts a hell of a lot of heat on me.’ And then they all said, ‘Yes, but we can get it done, and it will be bipartisan.’ And George said, 'OK, go for it, but it will be a real punch in the gut.’”

Simpson went on to explain, “Bob Dole, then a loyal warrior for George, took it back to the Senate, and we won a very strong bipartisan vote. And it went over to the House where his own party turned on him — surely one of the factors ensuring his return to private life. But he often said, ‘When the really tough choices come, it’s the country, not me. It’s not about Democrats or Republicans, it’s for our country that I fought for.’”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush41
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1 posted on 12/05/2018 11:37:27 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Bush blew it.


2 posted on 12/05/2018 11:40:18 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Raising taxes,or instituting a new tax,is always a courageous thing to do.Just asked the “Republican” Governor of Connecticut who instituted a state income tax and was rewarded with a “Profiles In Courage Award” from the murdering,raping and crippling Kennedy family.


3 posted on 12/05/2018 11:42:28 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (I've Never Owned Slaves...You've Never Picked Cotton.End Of "Discussion".)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
"What I have said on that subject sure puts a hell of a lot of heat on me."
"but it will be a real punch in the gut."
"When the really tough choices come, it’s the country, not me."


So let me get this right, he puts everything through the filter of how it hurts him, then when he has no choice, he claims it's all about the country?
4 posted on 12/05/2018 11:43:12 AM PST by JoSixChip (He is Batman!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Swampers


5 posted on 12/05/2018 11:43:20 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you .)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

catastrophic healthcare
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Which they had to repeal in a big fat hurry.


6 posted on 12/05/2018 11:44:06 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: JoSixChip

Simpson and all the Bush family are ... well, I can’t say it. Think of all the synonyms you can for jerks.


7 posted on 12/05/2018 11:44:52 AM PST by Pining_4_TX ("Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." ~ H.L. Mencken)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The only way to fix our issues is to cut entitlement and defense spending and raise taxes. As long as policymakers get seduced by Keynesian stimulus policies our deficit is going to get worse until we are gripped by debt service.


8 posted on 12/05/2018 11:44:59 AM PST by socalgop
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They STILL don’t get it.


9 posted on 12/05/2018 11:45:05 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Alan Simpson, of Simpson-Mazzoli, the 1986 amnesty that was supposed to have made another amnesty unnecessary, but in reality was written to make another amnesty inevitable as it was written to make it almost impossible to enforce.

The illegal alien inundation was intentional.

The Bush Plan for North Mexico (aka USA) was necessary to get to that New World Order.


10 posted on 12/05/2018 11:46:24 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It must be remembered that beside Bush defeating himself by ‘read my lips’ etc, his personal demon, a vindictive enemy named Ross Perot was what kept Bush from defeating Clinton. Bush would have won handily without Perot.


11 posted on 12/05/2018 11:47:56 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you .)
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To: 1Old Pro

Ok, you guys need to give it a break. You totally missed the point of the story. It wasn’t thanking him for raising taxes, the point was when he decided to do it, it was going to cost him personally. At that time he thought it was best for the country so he thought of the country over himself.

Watch the clip if you haven’t before you start mis representing the point of the eulogy.

Like all of you, I think what he did was a mistake, the old increase tax needed to “raise revenue” for other programs. But that wasn’t the point of the story.


12 posted on 12/05/2018 11:48:18 AM PST by shoedog
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

And that raising of taxes gave us Bill Clinton.


13 posted on 12/05/2018 11:48:36 AM PST by Anti-Bubba182
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To: Vaquero

I forgot about the hand grenade with a bad haircut, as Limbaugh was wont to call him.


14 posted on 12/05/2018 11:49:21 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies when Democrats refuse to accept the result of a democratic election they didn't win.)
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To: socalgop
The only way to fix our issues is to cut entitlement and defense spending and raise taxes.

We've collected a record amount revenue after the Trump tax cuts. There is no need to raise taxes. We have an ample amount of revenue.

15 posted on 12/05/2018 11:50:38 AM PST by Kazan
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Another “Simpson” didn’t have such a high opinion of George Bush....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRXN6ACvCoE


16 posted on 12/05/2018 11:50:40 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: shoedog

Nonsense; GW Bush was always a globalist, he cared far more for the adulation of the press and the Establishment; he gave no more a damn about breaking a no tax pledge than he did abandoning years of Planned Parenthood support to become a foe of abortion as a consequence of Reagan putting him on the ticket. Sorry but I don’t go in for the hagiography every time a mediocre president dies; when I was young, HS Truman, Eisenhower and Hoover died. Each was a more consequential and better president than GHW Bush or Gerry Ford, and apparently sometime in the future, Carter; none of them merited the federal government and Wall Street getting a day off, a funeral train, constant press adulation, or the cawing, crowing media claiming he was the best person that ever existed. they had solid accomplishments not phony adulation.


17 posted on 12/05/2018 11:55:19 AM PST by laconic
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8jiBKWRWeg

SNL’s Dana Carvey’s George Bush on raising taxes many seasons ago...


18 posted on 12/05/2018 11:55:57 AM PST by Snickering Hound
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Malcolm Wallop was the good Senator from Wyoming. Alan Simpson was a schmuck.


19 posted on 12/05/2018 11:57:04 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
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To: Snickering Hound

Notice at the end of my Simpsons’ clip, Homer tells Bush, “Now apologize for the tax hike!”


20 posted on 12/05/2018 11:57:09 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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