April 7, 1995: Not quite 100 days -- 94, to be exact -- into Republican control of Congress, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, Republican of Georgia, asks the major TV networks for time to discuss his Party's newly-implemented "Contract With America" -- as if he were the President, addressing the nation from the Oval Office of the White House.
They gave him the time. The photo above shows Gingrich at the Speaker's Chair in the House of Representatives chamber, in front of an American Flag. His actual speech was in the Speaker's office in the U.S. Capitol Building, although he did have gold curtains flanking an open window, as the Oval Office often has.
During the midterm election campaign in the preceding Summer and Autumn, Gingrich had promised to bring 10 bills to the House floor for a vote -- not that they would become law, not even that they would pass the House, just that they would come to a vote. He called it "The Contract With America." It worked: The Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress, and nearly every member, newly-elected or re-elected, who was no better than a toss-up to win when calendar year 1994 began now owed Gingrich his job, and, therefore, his loyalty.
So, all 10 bills did pass the House. Some turned out to be inconsequential, mere feel-good items, meaning more to the Republican Congressmen than to the American people. A couple were signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Clinton also vetoed a couple. Some were stopped in the Senate, or amended to the point where they no longer resembled the sweeping legislation that Gingrich conceived of them as being.
Most notable was an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, requiring a balanced federal budget. And, since Gingrich insisted on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, and refused to cut spending on the U.S. Department of Defense, a balanced budget would have required deep cuts in spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education and environmental protection -- things that angered many middle-of-the-road Americans.
The proposed Amendment got the necessary 2/3rds supermajority in the House (290 votes, instead of the usual majority of 218), but failed by 1 vote in the Senate (getting 66 out of 67, rather than the usual majority of 51). Had it gotten the 67th vote, it then would have gone to the States: A majority vote for it in three-quarters of their legislatures, 38 out of 50, would have made it a part of the Constitution of the United States.
That 1 Senate vote to stop it came from Mark Hatfield, Republican of Oregon. A former Governor, he knew how hard it is to balance a budget, even when you don't have to protect things like Social Security. The conservative movement vowed to run a candidate much to his right in the next Primary. Instead, he retired, and the seat has been held by Democrat Ron Wyden ever since.
The most significant part of what Clinton called "the Contract On America" was a budget with deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. He vowed to veto it, and he did, leading to an epic showdown in the Autumn of 1995. Between that, and the Balanced Budget Amendment, the Contract has to be viewed, then as now, as a disappointment at best, and a failure at most.
By airing print and TV ads making it look as though the Republican nominee for President, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, had made Gingrich, rather than former Congressman and football player Jack Kemp, his running mate, Clinton was easily re-elected in 1996. But it was a personal victory, without enough "coattails" to win back a majority in either house of Congress.
In 1997, Clinton, Gingrich, and the new Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, negotiated a balanced budget, one based on the economic growth brought about by Clinton's 1993 tax increase and a streamlining of the Department of Defense, and so the social-spending cuts weren't necessary.
By the end of the 2000s, thanks to the Republicans controlling the Presidency and the Congress for most of the decade, the budget deficit was high enough to make Gingrich -- and Ronald Reagan -- look like actual fiscal conservatives. It has begun to come down again because a liberal Democratic President named Barack Obama got things under control.
And Gingrich? After resigning not just as Speaker, but from Congress completely, in disgrace in 1998, he returned to the public eye by running for President in 2012, and made a big fool of himself all over again. He has often claimed to be a historian, but instead of becoming what he called "a transitional figure in history," he'd probably be better off if history just plain forgot him. Don't bet on it.
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April 7, 1995 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training, delayed due to the resolution of the Strike of '94. Football was out of season. There were 9 games in the NBA:
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 107-92 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
* The Boston Celtics beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers, 91-81 at the Boston Garden.
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Washington Bullets, 98-93 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Indiana Pacers, 102-90 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic, 104-94 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 97-88 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 111-94 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz, 113-90 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Cedric Ceballos led all scorers on the night with 36 points.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 127-109 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
And there were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New York Islanders beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wigs beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-4 at the Winnipeg Arena.
* The Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* The Dallas Stars beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2-0 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).
* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-0 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).
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