I know you might be busy conferring with God about history for the rest of us - but you might want to learn a little bit about these numbers and the balanced budget Gingrich achieved:
May 1997, Gingrich reached a compromise with the Democrats and President Clinton on the federal budget. The plan included a total of $152 billion in Republican sponsored tax cuts over five years. President Clinton signed the budget legislation in August 1997.
In early 1998, with the economy performing better than expected, increased tax revenues helped reduce the federal budget deficit to below $25 billion. Gingrich then called upon President Clinton to submit a balanced budget for 1999—three years ahead of schedule—which Clinton did, making it the first time the federal budget had been balanced since 1969.
The economy was booming in the 1990s, which of course drove up government revenue. The stock market bubble also contributed billions to the tax revenue.
This allowed us to have tax cuts AND spending increases (remember, spending increases in a time with no war, and with very little need for welfare or stimulus spending since unemployment was low). We got a “balanced budget”, but it was short-lived because it didn’t come from serious spending restraint.
Once we had attacks on us, we had to ramp up defense spending. Once the stock market bubble burst, revenues dropped. When we went into a recession, government spending shot back up, and the deficit was back.
The balanced budget also has many fathers, because it was “good”. Hell, some even claim Clinton’s tax increases were the deciding factor. The idea that we take a single man, and cloak him with all of the good that happened while he happened to be around is absurd of course, as if being in the room conveys full responsibility.
I won’t try to minimize his contributions, if people will wake up from their selective amnesia and remember what we all knew about Gingrich 7 months ago.