Let’s review recent history shall we?
Gingrich and the incoming Republican majority’s promise to slow the rate of government spending conflicted with Clinton’s agenda for Medicare, education, the environment and public health, leading to two temporary shutdowns of the federal government totaling 28 days.
Clinton said Republican amendments would strip the U.S. Treasury of its ability to dip into federal trust funds to avoid a borrowing crisis. Republican amendments would have limited appeals by death-row inmates, made it harder to issue health, safety and environmental regulations, and would have committed the president to a seven-year balanced budget. Clinton vetoed a second bill allowing the government to keep operating beyond the time when most spending authority expires.
A GOP amendment opposed by Clinton would have not only have increased Medicare Part B premiums, but it would also cancel a scheduled reduction. The Republicans held out for an increase in Medicare part B premiums in January 1996 to $53.50 a month. Clinton favored the then current law, which was to let the premium that seniors pay drop to $42.50.
The government closed most non-essential offices during the shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history. The shutdown ended when Clinton agreed to submit a CBO-approved balanced budget plan.
Looking back — WHAT WAS SO BAD ABOUT THAT?
We found out that we could survive a government shutdown and in the end — WE GOT A BALANCED BUDGET, which led to rare surpluses in the late 1990’s and a booming economy to boot.
These so-called “balanced budgets” were complete illusions. If they had been real, our debt would have disappeared during the Bush years when we had both the Congress and the WH for 6 years. Newt did nothing to repeal the Clinton tax hikes, his budgets were very little different from Clinton’s, and included the kind of pork that allowed Clinton (to whom Repubs gave the line item veto) to score political points against selectively targetted Repub budget excesses (never, of course, Dem excesses).
We had real chance to kill the Clinton mythology and to get real balanced budgets. We blew it. Newt was on record attacking the Ryan plan, that should have told you everything about Newt.