“If we break this contract, throw us out. We mean it.” So pronounced the bottom line of a Republican National Committee ad, which laid out the Contract With America to TV Guide readers ahead of the 1994 midterm elections. The Contract promised that Republicans would, on their first day in the majority, “force Congress to live under the same laws as every other American,” cut congressional committee staff by one-third, and cut Congress’ budget. Then, in its first 100 days, the new majority would pass bills responding to 10 other priorities, including a number of substantive policy goals but also major institutional changes, namely a balanced budget amendment, a line-item veto, and term limits. As Newt Gingrich and other leading champions of the Contract made clear, they sought to reset policy but also to accomplish something grander: to change the way Washington did business. To enact a revolution.
With the benefit of a quarter-century of hindsight, how did the 104th Congress do?
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