Clinton was able to bridge though Gingrich though. Great read here:
http://www.nolabels.org/blog/working-together...-examples/
It's also the truth about this so called balanced budget under the Clinton Administration.
Working Together Can Work Again: The Clinton and Reagan Examples
By Bill Galston
August 19, 2015
Join No Labels
When the parties can agree on goals, the path to agreement on policies becomes smoother. This was true for Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. It was true for Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich. And it remains true today.
President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich
When Bill Clinton became president, the economy was struggling to emerge from recession, and the budget deficit was large by historical standards. In early 1993, he resolved a debate within his administration by choosing fiscal restraint over expansive public investment, an approach that reduced the deficit without eliminating it.
In the 1994 midterm elections, Newt Gingrich led the Republican Party to a majority in the House for the first time in forty years. The party’s Contract With America featured a balanced budget as a prominent goal.
At first, President Clinton and most members of his party balked. The cuts would be too deep, they said. It wasn’t possible in such a short time frame. In February 1995, Clinton released a budget that projected annual deficits of nearly $200 billion through 2005.
Just four months later, Clinton reversed course. In a speech from the Oval Office in June 1995, he endorsed the goal of a balanced federal budget and laid out his ideas for reaching it in the way that he believed would best promote the well-being of the people. “There are fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans about how to balance the budget,” he said. “But this debate must go beyond partisanship. It must be about what’s good for America and which approach is more likely to bring prosperity and security to our people over the long run.”
With those words, Clinton reframed the conversation in Washington. At that moment, the parties stopped fighting over whether they wanted to balance the budget. Instead, they started debating the best way to get it done.
The period that came next is often remembered for a partisan battle that ended in a government shutdown. But neither party lost sight of the goal of a balanced budget. When Clinton addressed the nation in the midst of the shutdown, he mentioned the importance of balancing the budget more than ten times. For his part Speaker Gingrich repeatedly underscored his party’s commitment to balancing the budget. They disagreed over how quickly the budget could be balanced and what needed to be cut—but they never strayed from that goal.
In the end, of course, the government reopened. The next year Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and Clinton gladly signed it into law. With that law in place—and with rapid growth driving the economy—the United States balanced its budget for the first time in decades and did so for four years in a row.
http://www.nolabels.org/blog/working-together...-examples/
It's also the truth about this so called balanced budget under the Clinton Administration.
Working Together Can Work Again: The Clinton and Reagan Examples
By Bill Galston
August 19, 2015
Join No Labels
When the parties can agree on goals, the path to agreement on policies becomes smoother. This was true for Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. It was true for Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich. And it remains true today.
President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich
When Bill Clinton became president, the economy was struggling to emerge from recession, and the budget deficit was large by historical standards. In early 1993, he resolved a debate within his administration by choosing fiscal restraint over expansive public investment, an approach that reduced the deficit without eliminating it.
In the 1994 midterm elections, Newt Gingrich led the Republican Party to a majority in the House for the first time in forty years. The party’s Contract With America featured a balanced budget as a prominent goal.
At first, President Clinton and most members of his party balked. The cuts would be too deep, they said. It wasn’t possible in such a short time frame. In February 1995, Clinton released a budget that projected annual deficits of nearly $200 billion through 2005.
Just four months later, Clinton reversed course. In a speech from the Oval Office in June 1995, he endorsed the goal of a balanced federal budget and laid out his ideas for reaching it in the way that he believed would best promote the well-being of the people. “There are fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans about how to balance the budget,” he said. “But this debate must go beyond partisanship. It must be about what’s good for America and which approach is more likely to bring prosperity and security to our people over the long run.”
With those words, Clinton reframed the conversation in Washington. At that moment, the parties stopped fighting over whether they wanted to balance the budget. Instead, they started debating the best way to get it done.
The period that came next is often remembered for a partisan battle that ended in a government shutdown. But neither party lost sight of the goal of a balanced budget. When Clinton addressed the nation in the midst of the shutdown, he mentioned the importance of balancing the budget more than ten times. For his part Speaker Gingrich repeatedly underscored his party’s commitment to balancing the budget. They disagreed over how quickly the budget could be balanced and what needed to be cut—but they never strayed from that goal.
In the end, of course, the government reopened. The next year Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and Clinton gladly signed it into law. With that law in place—and with rapid growth driving the economy—the United States balanced its budget for the first time in decades and did so for four years in a row.
