Visiting Washington D.C. after 20 years

The last time I visited Washington was shortly after Bill Clinton's inauguration in January 1993 as an attendee to the annual convention of representatives of the NFIB  (National Federation of Independent Business).  A partner and I had just started a new magazine for the NFIB, a powerful lobbying voice for small businesses of mostly 20 and fewer employees.  We called the magazine "Independent Business", later shortened to "IB" Magazine.     Larger small businesses and large corporation are represented by the US Chamber of Commerce which has far fewer members than the NFIB's 600,000, but more political clout generally speaking.  One of the meet and greet sessions on that visit was with the newly minted President Clinton, who did his usual sweet talking routine trying to convince this generally hostile group that, although a democrat,  he was not anti business.  A tough sell since this group is probably somewhat right of the NRA in its political proclivities.  Another more congenial visit was with Newt Gingrich, destined to become Speaker of the House and a great stumbling block to Clinton's left wing agenda of the first two years of his administration.

Bearing in mind this meeting was two years before Gingrich's ascendency to Speaker, he was very clear about his agenda to roll back the tide of big government at the federal level.  He went so far as to suggest there was no compromising with the democrats because almost all of them were socialists.  To the extent the federal budget was balanced for six years of the Clinton administration, that welfare programs were reformed and that Hillary care was resoundingly defeated, much of the credit goes to Gingrich and his "Contract with America", as the Republican reform program came to be called. Gingrich was a transformational figure during the Clinton years, forcing the Clinton presidency to move to the center and stopping the mad democrat led rush to socialism now resumed in spades under Obama.