George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

a cut in the capital gains tax. Then he indicated that he would not. In a press conference,
he said such a deal would be "fine." Then a group of Republican Congressmen visited
him to urge him to drop the idea of any such deal; they came out declaring that Bush was
now in agreement with them. But then Bush drifted back towards the tradeoff. Richard
Darman, one of Bush's budget enforcers, was asked what Bush thought about the tax
rates trade off. "I have no idea what White House statement was issued," said the top
number cruncher, "but I stand behind it 100%." By the weekend of October 13-14, there
were at least three draft tax bills in circulation. Even hard-core Bushmen were unable to
tell the legislators what the president wanted, and what he would veto. The most
degraded and revealing moment came when Bush was out jogging, and reporters asked
him about his position on taxes. "Read my hips!," shouted Bush, pointing towards his
posterior with both hands. It was not clear who had scripted that one, but the message
was clear: the American people were invited to kiss Bush's ass.
It was one of the most astounding gestures by a president in modern times, and posed the
inevitable question: had Bush gone totally psychotic?
"The public is not laughing," commented a White House official. Newsday, the New
York tabloid, went with the headline READ MY FLIPS. The New York Times revived the
label that Bush resented most: for the newspaper of record, Bush was "a political wimp."
A senior GOP political consultant noted that "the difference is that Reagan had principles
and beliefs. This guy has no rudder." In the opinion of Newsweek, "Bush took no stand on
principle and didn't seem to know what he wanted....He made incomprehensible jokes.
He was strangely eager to please even those who were fighting him, and powerless to
punish defectors. As in the bad old days, he looked goofy." [fn 52]
The haggling went on into the third week of October, and then into the fourth. Would it
last to Halloween, to permit a macabre night of the living dead on the Capitol? Newt
Gingrich told David Brinkley on "This Week" of October 21 that most House
Republicans were prepared to vote against any plan to increase taxes, totally disregarding
the wishes of Bush. Senator Danforth of Missouri complained, "I am concerned and a lot
of Republicans are concerned that this is becoming a political rout." At this point the
Democrats wanted to place a 1% surtax on all income over 41 million, while the GOP
favored reducing the deductions for the rich. In yet another flip-flop, Bush had conceded
on October 20 that he would accept an increase in the top income tax rate from 28% to
31%. By October 24, a deal was finally reached which could be passed, and the next day
Bush attempted to put the best possible face on things by assembling the bruised and
bleeding Republican Congressional leadership, including the renegade Gingrich, for
another Rose Garden ceremony.
The final budget plan set the top income tax rate at 31%, and increased taxes on gasoline,
cigarettes, airline tickets, increased Medicare payroll taxes and premiums, while cutting
Medicare benefit payouts and government payments to farmers. Another part of the
package replaced the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings once a year sequester threat with a
"triple, rolling sequester" with rigid spending caps for each of the three categories of
defense, foreign aid, and discretionary domestic spending, and no transfers permitted