Ross Perot, who ran against the budget deficit and the national debt. The winner was Clinton, who profited from depressed GOP turnout with nearly one-fifth of the popular vote going to a third-party candidate, businessman H. But he received less than 38 percent of the popular vote in November. He fought off the Gingrich critique and the Buchanan challenge and was renominated in 1992. Nonetheless, the risk Bush knowingly took with the budget deal turned out to be worse than he realized. His 1990 compromise began a decade of relatively responsible budgeting that, combined with moves made by the Clinton administration in 1993, enabled the federal government to harvest considerable revenue from the personal computer boom of that decade.Īs the year 2000 approached, the stock market was booming and the annual budget deficit was nearing zero. And Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was about to invade neighboring Kuwait, which would trigger the first Persian Gulf War.īush knew the time had come to get the nation's fiscal house in order, or something like it. In that same month, the economy was slipping into a recession that was sure to reduce revenues. He insisted any option was preferable to any new revenue. In addition to his eight years as Vice President, he had served as Ambassador to. 2 spot in the House Republican leadership the previous year, made no secret of his displeasure. Bush brought his own considerable foreign policy experience to the presidency. A young Newt Gingrich, elevated to the No. Democrats exulted at having forced him to renege. So he signed off on a compromise involving revenues as well as spending restraints. Locked in budget negotiations with the majority Democrats in the House and Senate, Bush felt he had to allow higher rates on some existing taxes or the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction bill would shut down important services of the government. That was because less than two years after making the no-tax pledge, Bush found himself in circumstances in which he no longer felt he could keep it. But if it improved Bush's chances of being elected that year, it may also have ruined his chances of being re-elected in 1992. Polls showed that after the convention, Bush had a lead over Democrat Michael Dukakis. "Read my lips" succeeded, probably beyond their fondest dreams. George Bush wades through a crowd in Houston after his victory speech in the 1988 presidential election.
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