looks like the orange man group making a come back..

[Spongebob]

Ronald Reagan repeatedly kept whining and sermonizing about a "ballanced budget". 
Republicans ate it up. Too bad. 
He never once offered one.

There was a budget surplus during the Clinton Administration.

You are correct; Republican presidents talk about balancing the budget but it seems that there is never a real, genuine discussion of what the country needs versus what it can afford.  I'm not sure the population could even accept such a conversation because we are so divided.