" So tell me how it is Republicans in congress were able to control
the
government spending under Clinton and not under Bush?

Interesting question. But, your "opponent" here hasn't got the (balls?
honesty? smarts?) to answer it. "

Spending wasn't controlled by anyone under Clinton. The brief surplus
during the Clinton years was a direct result of a booming economy,
particularly the increase in capital gains flowing from the stock
market boom. The stock market began it's crash from super inflated
levels in spring 2000, while Clinton was still in the white house and
the economy followed suit within a year. Those two events sharply
reduced tax revenue. Then there was this little thing called 9/11
that perhaps you heard about? What effect did that have on the US
economy? And as I recall, we had to spend a hell of a lot of money,
not only on 9/11 directly, but to take the steps to increase our
defense, intelligence and invade Afghanistan. Did you sleep through
all that? And don't start the BS with President Bush's tax cuts. They
were the correct response to an economy that could have gone into
depression, were it not for the tax cuts and the Fed taking interest
rates to just about zero. Even with all that, the recovery was very
slow.