Earlier this week we linked to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 video pledging “no new taxes” (see Read My Lips). Today we go four years before that, to 1984 Democratic Presidential Nominee Walter Mondale’s convention acceptance speech, where he promised to raise taxes: In 1984, Tax Freedom Day stood at April 17, the lowest in ten years. Not until 2003 was it again so early in the year. (Tax Freedom Day 2008 was April 23.) It’s beyond my knowledge whether Mondale was right or wrong, or if this moment was a brave gesture of honesty, or campaign suicide. But it’s an interesting tax moment in American politics.
