Word: doled
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Dole seemed pleased. Says Utah Senator Bob Bennett, who participated: "That may have been the first time that Dole realized that it was not an either-or choice. Here were serious economists, not supply-side ideologues, saying yes, you can get greater growth in the economy by cutting taxes and you can remain a deficit hawk at the same time." Weeks later, though, Dole intimated to a vanquished rival from the primaries, publisher Steve Forbes, that he was still not altogether convinced. When they met in late May, Dole admitted being impressed by the excitement Forbes had aroused preaching...
Stanford economist John Taylor was supposed to draft a plan by June, but that proved undoable. Meetings and memos continued all through that month and into July. Dole stopped by some of the meetings but would listen only 30 minutes or so and then leave. "We're talking and arguing back and forth, very academic," a participant in one meeting recalls, "and Dole is looking at his watch. 'You're a bunch of smart guys,' he said. 'Get something on paper.' And then he was on to the next issue." That was classic Dole: let others work out details...
Those began on July 11, at a meeting of economic advisers, who by then included Forbes, over pizza at Dole campaign headquarters. Dole unexpectedly dropped in, stayed several hours and did the same the next day. Those sessions narrowed the choices to two. One was to repeal the 1990 and 1993 tax increases. Forbes pushed hard for this one, largely because it would strip away three tax brackets that had been added in those years and reduce the number of tax rates to only two. That would be a step toward Forbes' cherished flat...
...increases had hit only the upper 4% of taxpayers. Thus Sheila Burke, who was then Dole's chief of staff, judged a straight repeal "suicidal"; it would open the G.O.P. to charges that it was giving away money to the rich. Some advisers favored coupling repeal with a provision giving workers an income tax deduction equal to the Social Security taxes taken from their paychecks. That would have been a boon to the middle class and some of the working poor, since Social Security taxes are levied on the first wages of $62,700 a year, and have become...
While these wrangles were going on, Taylor and his fellow economists were working to insulate Dole from charges that he was making pie-in-the-sky promises. Many economists believe that the government would eventually get back 50% to 60% of the revenues initially lost through tax cuts, because faster economic growth would boost incomes subject to tax. To be conservative, though, Taylor reduced the figure presented to Dole...