Former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., said the late President George H.W. Bush was able to come to terms with his decision to raise taxes, even thought it cost him a second term in the White House, by saying he was always about helping the country.
“Recall the Andrews air base conclave, where congressional participants drafted a remarkable bill that dealt with two-year budgeting, entitlement reform, comprehensive and catastrophic healthcare, Social Security solvency, and much more,” Simpson said at Bush’s funeral at the National Cathedral Wednesday. “But it required the critical ingredient called ‘revenue,’ translated into the word ‘taxes,’ translated into the words ‘read my lips.'”
Simpson said he and a group of senators went to Bush to tell him they needed to raise taxes and described Bush’s immediate reaction, after he had promised voters, “Read my lips, no new taxes.”
“The group went to George and said, ‘Look, we can get this package done, but we must have some revenue,'” Simpson said. “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.'”
Recognizing that he had made a promise on the campaign trail in 1988 that he would never raise taxes, Bush said that he would agree to raising taxes if it meant Congress could pass the bill.
“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 said.
“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,'” Simpson said.
[Also read: Pompeo: George H.W. Bush showed ‘the type of leadership that President Trump is boldly reasserting’]
