Recalling Broken Vows: It’s a Long, Long Story

President Bush may have been the most recent politician to walk away from a pledge of no new taxes, but he certainly is not the only one--as history will attest.

Although Ronald Reagan carefully avoided an outright no-new-taxes pledge when he ran for governor of California in 1966, he repeatedly promised not to impose a state tax-withholding system. His feet were set “in concrete,” Reagan told voters around the state.

But a few months after taking office, the new governor accepted a tax-withholding plan as part of a huge $1-billion tax hike enacted in 1967. “I can hear the concrete cracking around me,” Reagan was forced to admit.

And when former Sen. Russell B. Long (D-La.), was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, he used to tell this story about his uncle, Earl Kemp Long, who was Louisiana governor in the 1940s and 1950s:

“When Old Uncle Earl was campaigning for governor, he ran on a promise not to raise taxes if he got into office. Wherever he went stumping--along every bayou in Louisiana--Uncle Earl had one central theme: ‘Elect me your governor, and you’ll never see a tax increase.’

“Well, needless to say, with that kind of campaign theme, Uncle Earl won the election handily, got sworn in as governor and started in to take a good look at the books. The first thing he found was that Louisiana was heading into the red.

“Well, his administrative aide was beside himself. ‘My goodness, governor,’ he said, ‘what are we going to do?’ But Uncle Earl didn’t hesitate a second: ‘Call up the Speaker of the House,’ he ordered, ‘and tell him we’re going to propose a tax increase!’

“Tax increase? The aide was horrified. ‘Governor,’ he said, incredulous, ‘you’ve spent this whole campaign promising not to increase taxes. You’ve campaigned up and down every bayou in Louisiana. If you propose a tax increase, what’ll we tell the people ?’

Again, said Sen. Long, “Uncle Earl didn’t hesitate a bit” before answering.

“Tell ‘em Ah lied,” he declared.

Staff writer Bill Boyarsky contributed to this story.