Having served as the majority spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee after Republicans took the House in 1994, I've seen the promise and the peril of divided government before.

Today, grass-roots Republicans want to drink a bottle of 2010 small-government wine, but our candidates were bottled in another era, before the tea party's ideas took root.

My advice to the tea party freshmen: Slow the galloping horses to a trot. Big government was built over decades; it can't be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House.

There are so many people in need that the federal government is not getting the job done.

What opponents of this budget want to do is spend more government money. It's the classic formula for how to build a big government.

I haven't heard anybody put a hard timetable on it like that. I think you've seen an acceleration in the pace.