What was the surplus used for in 1998, 1999, and 2000?

[Mr.Phips]

Hopefully, it was used solely to pay down the national debt.  

Let's look at this as an individual issue.  If you are up to your ears in debt(say around $100,000) and you get a windfall of about $10,000, do you use that to pay off some of your credit card debt or buy more crap?  Well, according to George W. Bush and many Republicans in the late 1990's, we should have used it to buy more crap.

Remember when Bush(and many Republican in Congress) spewed out this crap about "returning the money to the taxpayers" or "we have overcharged the taxpayers and they deserve a refund"?  What, do they want us to have deficits and just not care about the national debt?  

When you have $6 trillion in national debt, you should pay that off before you start talking about tax cuts and more spending.

There was no "surplus".  There was still a $6 trillion national debt.  Deal with that first.  Having an annual surplus just means that the digging of the hole has stopped.  There is still a very big hole. 

What are others' thoughts on this?

[Mr.Phips]

My thoughts: Bill Clinton was fiscally responsible because voters and Congress forced him to be. Al Gore likely would have followed in his foot steps. But I still give them credit for being fiscally responsible. Bush and the Congresses he dealt with were unforgivably profligate (i.e., spending on non-defense items should have been cut, not increased, to make up for the tax cuts). That said, Obama and the Democrats have been even worse since the departure of Bush.

I find it interesting that Clinton only balanced the budget because the GOP Congress forced him, yet that same Congress decided to Party Hard once Bush got into office.  It's almost as though they didn't really care about the budget...

Ane also the fact that the GOP unanmously opposed the 1993 budget plan, without which the budget would never have been balanced. 

[Mr.Phips]

It would be idiotic to repay the entire national debt.  That would wreck havoc in the financial system because banks need to have treasuries to operate.

Then just pay it down to the point where there is only something like $500 billion left in debt.  And banks could find something else to substitute for treasuries.  What did banks do before there was any national debt?