[JeffAtlanta]

Did Gingrich et al reduce spending? (Here's a hint: they didn't.)

They tried but couldn't do it due to a fiscal liberal president (just like we have now) being in the whitehouse. This was the first item in the Contract with America.

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out-of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.

[sinkspur]

A balanced budget does nothing to reduce the size of government. Spending can, and usually does, increase under balanced budgets.

Reducing the size of government is almost an impossible thing to do in the modern age, given how much government spending are entitlements.