Kennedys honor former President George H.W. Bush with award for "courage" in raising taxes

[The Straight Story]

BOSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush was honored Sunday with a Kennedy "courage" award for agreeing to raise taxes to confront a spiraling deficit, jeopardizing his presidency that ended after just one term.

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston honored Bush with a 2014 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

The award crossed generations and political parties. It was given by Jack Schlossberg, son of the late Democratic president's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, to Lauren Bush, granddaughter of the former Republican president.

Conservatives denounced Bush for raising taxes, breaking a key promise in his successful 1988 campaign for the White House.

Schlossberg said the award recognizes Bush for taking action, even if it was unpopular.

"We celebrate courage today, in a moment of profound change and challenge, in a world gripped by partisan gridlock and inaction," he said.


http://bigstory.ap.org/article/former-president-bush-honored-kennedy-award

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. The righties are probably in a tizzy right now

Found the Fox News article for this and they have the comment section closed.

[Major Nikon]

2. Saint Ronnie raised taxes 11 times

Bob Dole led the charge. The Republican era of fiscal responsibility is long gone, if it ever even existed to begin with.

[former9thward]

8. The "lefties" are in a tizzy also.

As you can see by the posts on this thread.

[octoberlib]

3. Why is this courageous ?

What a bunch of bull crap!

[okaawhatever]

5. He ran on "Read my lips, no new taxes" and when he raised them he knew it may cost him his second

term. He did what was right, not what the Republican party approved of. Remember, Bush Sr. called out Reaganomics and trickle-down as voodoo economics. He knew it was bullshit and said it, again against the wishes of the Republican party and the ptb. That is one thing i'll always give him credit for. That and for handling Kuwait in the best way possible. He got the same report as his son on invading Iraq. The report stated it would take years of war to turn around Iraq and that it would be costly, difficult and not really in the best interest of the American people. He pulled out before we got Saddam Hussein, which was highly unpopular, but he knew the risks of trying to get him and didn't put those costs on the American people for the benefit of his presidency. He also got the Saudis and other middle eastern countries to pay for it, and built a coalition so it wouldn't be unpopular or cost too many American lives. I'll give him credit for those two things. In fact, when we decry the right wing economic agenda we should use Bush Sr.'s own words in our writings.

[rurallib]

6. that "read my lips" slogan

Many years ago I used to get Republican calls. One woman tried to tell me that Reagan never raised taxes. Couldn't believe she said that.

So I asked her if she remembered HW's slogan in '88. She responded with the "no new taxes." So I said "do you have any idea why he said that?" She said she always wondered why. When I told her it was because of all the Reagan taxes she slammed down the phone.

Game, set, match.


BUt I must say the idea of HW getting a "profiles in Courage" award seems almost like an Onion story.

[dflprincess]

7. He called trickle down "voodoo" economics before he was picked as the VP candidate

after that he was all for it.

HW getting this reward must mean courage is in short supply. -- Unless someone hoped that getting this would award would weigh so heavily on his conscious (like he has one) that he'd finally confess what he knows about JFK's murder. He seemed to come so close at Ford's funeral maybe this would push him over the edge.

[okaawhatever]

9. It might be to draw attention to the current Republicans and their failure to keep taxes at a level

that will sustain our country.

[phleshdef]

13. I think it might be more about making a historical and political point.

I see no other reason really.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. HA!!

[JHB]

10. It's a sign of how warped the Republicans have become that it counts as courage...

A little reminder for everyone: In 1988 the income tax was reduced to two brackets: 15% up to roughly the median income, 28% on income above that.

Nearly a flat tax, and not only was the top rate low, but all progressivity on high incomes was wiped out. They were unsustainably low, so Bush pushed for a minor tweak -- one additional bracket that affected the top 25%. And the conservative wingnuts threw a tantrum over it.

Below is a few select years of the tax bracket distribution adjusted for inflation (2013 dollars). you can see how markedly different the tax structure has been post-1988 compared to anything that came before. Bush's "courageous" tax hike is the 1991 one.

[JHB]

15. And from 1955-1966 George Romney averaged 37%, despite the 91 and 70% marginal rates

Yes there's a difference between marginal and effective rates. But since that wasn't under discussion I'm not sure what your point is.

There are always loopholes in one form or another. Every once in a while there's a highly-touted "tax simplification" that eliminates a bunch of them. The trade-off, however, has been not only lowering the nominal rates but also pushing down the level where the top marginal rate kicks in. In other words, it's not just about lowering the numbers in the boxes in the chart I posted above, but also chopping off the top boxes.

Also, please note that this discussion was about GHW Bush's "courage" in adding one extra bracket to the unsustainably low 1988 changes. Bush was relentlessly attacked by conservatives for it, the same conservatives predicted disaster when Clinton made further changes (but historically speaking, relatively minor ones), and yet the result was the non-disaster that you point out.

[JHB]

18. "beloved rates"? I've been talking about progressivity, the progression of rates at higher levels...

...not about what I may think the best rates within that progression would be. If you want to go into detail as to what would be wrong with having, say, a 50's-style bracket structure except with all the rates lowered to more optimal levels, then please do go on. On the other hand, if you're just going to talk about "beloved rates", you're just wasting everybody's time.

[Recursion]

12. It was the best decision he made

[JHB]

16. Do you support returning to the rates Kennedy advocated?