But this year Congress and the administration were set for a facedown: both vowed there would be no smoke-and-mirrors solution. In past years the bullet fired by the act had been mostly dodged by phony spending cuts and wildly optimistic revenue estimates. Under the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, the deficit had to be trimmed by fully $100 billion to avoid forced spending cuts that would 'sequester' funds from programs I across the board. Forecast at just $124 billion only last January, it now looked to reach $232 billion for fiscal 1991-and if it weren't for the surplus in the social-security trust fund, the true deficit would be $305 billion. Thanks partly to the savings and loan disaster, the budget deficit was spiraling out of control. Whatever their intentions, this has been touted as 'Bush's big lie'.'Īs Bush himself saw it, he had little choice but to switch his stand. 'But people feel they are victims of some ill-conceived actions.

Malcolm Wallop, chairman of the Republican Steering Committee. 'I don't want to use the word 'betrayed',' said Wyoming Sen. But that was a Democrat speaking-and a good many Republicans in Congress suspected darkly that Bush was willing to put their jobs at I risk this fall to improve his own chances in I 1992. 'He's starting to act like a president,' approved chairman Dan Rostenkowski of the House Ways and Means Committee. What it brought him for openers was an incipient revolt in his own party, the prospect of weeks or months of tough budget bargaining with no sure outcome, a leap into uncharted shoals of economic theory and the prospect of Republican losses in this fall's congressional elections. In the short run, however, the president had plainly launched on his biggest gamble yet.

Would his turnaround hurt his credibility? 'No, not in the long run.' When the budget deal with Congress was completed, he said, he would 'ask the people for support,' and he would get it. He compared himself to Abraham Lincoln ('I'll think anew') and to Ronald Reagan, who had raised taxes in 19 and won re-election anyway. Things had changed since he made his vow in 1988, he said the economy was slower and the budget deficit worse 'than any of us visualized' back then.

But as the reporters badgered away-Why the change? Had he lied?-their tone was more bantering than hostile, and the president grew relaxed and confident.

Now, in the White House press room, he was facing the toughest questioning of his presidency.īush was visibly subdued at the start, and he stumbled several times in his bland opening statement. For three days, while Democrats gloated and right-wing Republicans raged at the flip-flop, Bush himself had hunkered down in silence. READ MY LIPS: I LIED, said the New York Post's banner headline. Sununu-had drastically underestimated the firestorm that erupted when the president abandoned his read-my-lips pledge and admitted the need for new taxes in a budget deal with Congress. But the bold stance was at least partly an exercise in damage control: the White House-and especially chief of staff John H. He sounded fine, and won some plaudits for courage. 'The arrows have been flying-front, back, sideways. I knew I'd catch some flak on this decision,' said George Bush, every inch the embattled leader. Bush's flip-flop on taxes breaks the deadlock with Congress-but threatens revolt in the GOP and a long, tough negotiation to cut the budget deficit

Another phrase for biting the bullet