November, 1994... Clinton was President and it was the mid-term election (just like the one we're coming up to now in November). Like Obama, Clinton and Hillary attempted to completely revolutionize the health care system (ever since called Hillarycare) as well as radically alter other government. At any rate, the attmepted liberalization of so many things at one time resulted in the the Republican Party siezing control of both the House of Representatives as well as the Senate... unheard of in the previous 50 years or so.
This sea change did cause Clinton to announce "... the era of big government is over" and actually meant it. His pivot to the center let him retain his Presidency in the next general election.
Newt Gingrich became the Speaker of the House (third in line of succession to the Presidency). Gingrich had been the brilliant architect of the "Contract With America" that promised lower taxes and restricted government, to which all new Representatives and Senators promised to adhere. Most did, surprisingly...