Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appeared on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show last night to talk about what’s wrong in US politics today.

Gingrich, who spearheaded the so-called Republican Revolution of the 1990s which ended over forty years of Democratic rule in the House of Representatives, remarked that both parties have allowed government spending to spin out of control. “We’ve gotten into a cycle of spending money on a scale that’s unsustainable,” he said, admitting that the process begun while George W. Bush was in office.

Under President Clinton, Gingrich worked with the Democratic administration to keep spending under control, balance the budget and actually pay off part of the country’s national debt. Why didn’t Republicans do the same under Bush, asked Stewart, who, for six years, could count on Republican majorities in both House of Congress. They lowered taxes but didn’t downsize government. “And they got punished for it,” Gingrich replied.

A radical reconstruction of the entitlement programs currently financed by the US Government is necessary to truly bring down costs, said Gingrich. Without reforming Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, government will continue to run deficits because Republicans, according to the party elder, rather lower taxes and borrow to keep “the smallest possible share of the economy going to the government.”