I wish Obama had the brains to repeat the Clinton-Gingrich stalemate

Gingrich is also wrong that the ultimate result of the shutdowns "was the first four consecutive balanced budgets since the 1920s." There were indeed four consecutive surpluses from 1998 to 2001 and that definitely was the first time that happened since 1927-30. But the surpluses were the result of a perfect storm of positive economic news that included a huge increase in revenues from the tech bubble and the big run up in the stock markets along with low inflation and the political stalemate that made adding new spending or cutting taxes almost impossible. If you were going to choreograph a way to balance the federal budget, that would have been the way to do it.

As Stan Collender puts it

Stan neglects a few fact himself, like the Clinton/Gingrich welfare reform. He forgets that HillaryCare went nowhere,  and he forgets that we deregulated telecom. Instead we have Obamacare, a $1.5 trillion dollar yearly deficit,  tax cuts, and RayLaHood running aroung promoting 1930s Choo Choo technology.

Stan revises history and slants his point of view like anyone else, but we have the Internet and we can spot con artists like Stan.

The plain fact is we could have the same Clinton boom today, if we had a president as smart as Clinton. We don't, we have a delusional in way over his head. I wish we could have Gingrich Republicans rather than the Tea Party.