What Newt Still Won’T Admit

salon.com — In 1993, Democrats controlled both the legislative and executive branches, and they used their power that year to raise taxes on the top 1.2 percent of income-earners, creating a new top marginal rate of 39.6 percent. When that budget cleared the House (on a 218-216 vote in which every Republican voted no), the GOP whip issued a bold and frightening prediction: “I believe this will lead to a recession next year,” Newt Gingrich said. “This is the Democrat machine’s recession. And each one of them will be held personally accountable.” He still hasn’t come to terms with how wrong he was, and neither has his party. Nearly 20 years after Gingrich uttered those words, the debate in Washington carries echoes of that ’93 fight.

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