Down The Memory Hole

In attempting to jog Paul Krugman's memory, Tom Maguire finds this priceless nugget from 1993:

In selling his economic plan, President Clinton is gambling that voters never took seriously his campaign promise to lower the tax burden of the middle class and will respond favorably to an aggressive pitch based on equal measures of hope, fear and class revenge.

After months of polling and research, Mr. Clinton's top political advisers say they are convinced that middle-class voters will support higher taxes. The advisers say the voters will see the new taxes as the price of great improvements in Government service and as inflicting a just punishment on the rich who profited during the Reagan and Bush Administrations.
...

"Voters never believed in the middle-class tax cut, because they have never seen anyone get a tax cut," said Mr. Clinton's chief poll taker, Stanley Greenberg. "They always believed their taxes would go up whether Bill Clinton became President or George Bush was President.

And yet, George W. Bush campaigned on a promise to cut taxes for everyone - including the middle class - and actually did it. Isn't that something?

Gee. I wonder what we're being promised right now that we'll be asked to forgive and forget around this time next year?