Photo: On February 2, 1999, Vice President Al Gore looks on as President Bill Clinton places a “0” on the board showing what the federal deficit will be after he agreed with the GOP Congress on a balanced budget plan.

The House GOP has a one seat majority, and Democrats control the White House, Senate and media. The Freedom Caucus is extremely popular on the right, but we have never understood their no compromise and no negotiations strategy.
Speaker Mike Johnson is wise in rejecting their advice and Speaker Newt Gingrich had the same outlook when Republicans took over Congress in 1995 for the first time in 40 years. Republicans would still have to deal with a Democratic White House for the next six years, and anything the GOP passed could be vetoed by President Clinton.
Unlike the Freedom Caucus, the 1995 GOP strategy was to negotiate with Democrats on Capitol Hill and the White House. It was a wise decision because Bill Clinton signed into law several planks of the GOP’s Contract with America including welfare reform, the $500 per child tax credit, the capital gains tax cut, and the line-item veto (it was later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court). There was also agreement on deregulation and most importantly, deficit reduction.
The declining deficits were a crucial factor in driving down interest rates. They reduced borrowing costs which spurred private sector growth and federal tax receipts. The result was America’s last budget surplus.
Wikipedia “There were budget surpluses for fiscal years 1998–2001, and the budgets were balanced. The ratio of debt held by the public to GDP, a primary measure of U.S. federal debt, fell from 47.8% in 1993 to 33.6% by 2000.”
This happened because of the dot com boom, lower spending and increased tax revenues. Clinton took advantage of the “peace dividend” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union to reduce defense spending from 4.3% of GDP in 1993 to 2.9% by 2000. Defense was cut by $1 trillion but many modernization programs were restored when the war on terror began, and there was also a readiness crisis.
This was also before the huge jump in mandatory spending which is now on track to consume 80% of the budget. It was less than 50% in the Clinton era. The population of Americans 65 or older has grown by 32% since 1993, increasing demand for entitlements.