What did george h w bush did?

Answer 1

During the 1988 presidential campaign, George H W Bush made an infamous pledge not to raise taxes:

And I'm the one who will not raise taxes. My opponent now says he'll raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that's one resort he'll be checking into. My opponent, my opponent won't rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes and I'll say no. And they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again, and I'll say, to them, 'Read my lips: no new taxes.'

- George H. W. Bush, at the 1988 Republican National Convention

Some political pundits believe it helped Bush win the election. Then in 1990, a recession began. Bush initially resisted pressure from the Democrat-controlled Congress, but eventually agreed to raise taxes.

The issue was initially swept away by the events of the Gulf War, but returned to haunt Bush during the 1992 election. During a primary challenge, conservative candidate Pat Buchanan constantly reminded voters of the broken promise. Bush won the nomination fairly easily, but in the General Election, Bill Clinton used to to portray Bush as untrustworthy. Clinton then won the election.

Republican politicians and pundits later said that Bush would have been easily reelected if he'd stuck to his word. On the other hand, the Democrats believed that Bush did the correct thing in raising taxes, and the mistake was making the promise in the first place.