Remember the surplus? Back in 2001, the last budget of the Clinton administration?
Hate to tell you, there was no surplus.
If you check out the official national debt, you find that it went up during each year of Clinton's term including FY 1999, FY 2000 and FY 2001. Visit
http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16 . That site links data from
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np , which is a site linked by the US Treasury website at
http://www.ustreas.gov , to arrive at the following figures:
YEAR ... NATNL DEBT
-------- ---------------
FY1993 $4.411 trillion
FY1994 $4.692 trillion, deficit = $281 billion
FY1995 $4.973 trillion, deficit = $281 billion
FY1996 $5.225 trillion, deficit = $250 billion
FY1997 $5.413 trillion, deficit = $188 billion
FY1998 $5.526 trillion, deficit = $113 billion
FY1999 $5.656 trillion, deficit = $130 billion
FY2000 $5.674 trillion, deficit = $18 billion
FY2001 $5.807 trillion, deficit = $133 billion
Now how can there have been a surplus when the Treasury Department is telling us the national debt went up every single year? The answer is given at that website and turns out to be … as they say … "smoke and mirrors":
When it is claimed that Clinton paid down the national debt, that is patently false--as can be seen, the national debt went up every single year. What Clinton did do was pay down the public debt--notice that the claimed surplus is relatively close to the decrease in the public debt for those years. But he paid down the public debt by borrowing far more money in the form of intergovernmental holdings (mostly Social Security).
Now granted, the deficit went down to only $18 billion one year, but that was not a surplus. There was no surplus. To claim there was is false. Furthermore, note that Clinton, liar that he was, actually claimed to have generated a surplus totaling $360 billion the last three years in office. Here:
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/09/27/clinton.surplus/
President Clinton announces another record budget surplus
From CNN White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace
September 27, 2000
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of $122.7 billion. ... snip ... the president explained, the $5.7 trillion national debt has been reduced by $360 billion in the last three years -- $223 billion this year alone. This represents, Clinton said, "the largest one-year debt reduction in the history of the United States."
But that's not true. What Clinton did was pay down the public debt, NOT the national debt and there's a difference. He paid down the public debt by borrowing money in the form of intergovernmental holdings ... which is included in the national debt. In essence, he hid the problem. And the democrat-friendly mainstream media helped him do it.
And by the way, as to the reduction in the deficit during Clinton's term, how do you think that came about? You will note that the deficit in FY1994 and FY1995 was $281 billion dollars. The deficit only began to fall in FY1996 and thereafter. Now what was different about the later years from the first two? Well to begin with, republicans took control of Congress away from the democrats in January 1995. So FY1996 was the first year based on republican budgeting. And balancing the budget was the heart of Republican fiscal agenda during that time. Remember the government shutdown in late 1995? That was about balancing the budget and in the end President Clinton folded. Republicans retained control of Congress, even if by a slim margin, until after Clinton left office, which explains why the deficit continued to fall during Clinton's term. Clinton just went along for the ride because he was always good at going whichever way the wind seemed to be blowing at the time.
