The Story Behind George HW Bushs Famous Read My Lips No New Taxes Promise
Six words. That's all it took to craft one of the most enduring quotes throughout the career of President George H.W. Bush  who died on Nov. 30, 2018, at the age of 94, just eight months after his wife Barbara Bush. "Read my lips no new taxes.", Spoken by Bush during his 1988 run for the presidency, the quote helped Bush defeat Michael Dukakis, became a cornerstone of his Saturday Night Live persona embodied by Dana Carvey and also caught him in a political snare. At a time of major budget deficits and spending needs, Bush was  as many had predicted  unable to get by with cuts alone. Before his first year in office was complete, he had signed into law a "stealth budget" that, while leaving the income tax alone, raised various fees and levies. In 1990, David Letterman was joking that Bush's catchphrase should be updated to "Read my lips I was lying" sure enough, it was clear that the original promise had to go. But how did Bush end up making such a promise in the first place? In covering George H.W. Bush's January 1989 inauguration, TIME got the backstory, But, though the promise itself proved impossible to keep, George H.W. Bush's words themselves have had a longevity far beyond their time. Read the full story, on the occasion of Bush's 1989 inauguration, here in the TIME Vault "A New Breeze Is Blowing"