The Federal Deficit

[David S]

Without a doubt George W is the uncontested champion of the huge deficit contest. But some people claim Bill Clinton created a surplus and actually paid down the debt. Did he really do that? The anwer is no. The debt increased every year he was in office. You can check it out yourself at the Bureau of the Public Debt at
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opd.htm
Click on the years 1950-2000.
Overall the debt increased $1.6 trilllion during Clinton's stay in the White House. Although W is on track to top that record too if he gets re-elected.

[The Duke]

Please adjust for inflation next time.

[Citizen James]

Technically, it was the 'Debt held by the public' portion of the debt which decreased in the late 90s.   The total debt including 'intragovernmental holdings' did indeed continue to increase.  'Intragovernmental holdings is money the government owes to itself.  I suspect this is a matter of certain agencies which have had a current surplus (such as social security), buying a portion of the debt with it's excess which was then used to fund shortfalls elsewhere.

There's a plus and minus to that - the government actually was taking in a little more than it was spending, however the funds being invested into these IOUs will come due eventually (probably around 2010 or so as the number of retired baby boomers increases), and we will need real funds to pay for that.  

[David S]

My point being that whether the president is Democrat or Republican the debt keeps going up. Some day this debt will catch up with us and its not going to be pretty.
The problem is spending. No matter how much money government takes in, it spends more. The Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik is the only one who wants to reduce spending. Shouldn't we be doing this now rather than letting the problem become progressively worse until it becomes unfixable?

[Reignman]

My point being that whether the president is Democrat or Republican the debt keeps going up. Some day this debt will catch up with us and its not going to be pretty.
The problem is spending. No matter how much money government takes in, it spends more. The Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik is the only one who wants to reduce spending. Shouldn't we be doing this now rather than letting the problem become progressively worse until it becomes unfixable?

Clinton balanced the budget and produced a record surplus.

[The Duke]

My point being that whether the president is Democrat or Republican the debt keeps going up. Some day this debt will catch up with us and its not going to be pretty.
The problem is spending. No matter how much money government takes in, it spends more. The Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik is the only one who wants to reduce spending. Shouldn't we be doing this now rather than letting the problem become progressively worse until it becomes unfixable?

Clinton balanced the budget and produced a record surplus.

No he didn't, it was an accounting trick.

[??????????]

"Its all gloom and doom""Its going to catch up with us" yada yada yada. This nation has had debt since its' founding and was only paid off ONCE in our history. I do not see this changing under Bush or sKerry.

[Reignman]

No he didn't, it was an accounting trick.

Okay, maybe the "record surplus" was (I really don't know whether it was or not), but wasn't he PAYING off the debt?

[David S]

The debt did not go down in any year that Bill Clinton was in office. How is that paying off the debt?

[Reignman]

I found this

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

I'm assuming Clinton meant as a percentage of the GNP?  I know some Democrats are going on and on about how this is the biggest debt we've ever had, but I'm not sure it's the biggest we've had as a percentage of the GNP.

[muon2]

The best measure to use is total Federal debt as compared to the GDP. An equivalent measure might be total corporate debt compred to gross revenues. The Federal government, like most corporations will maintain some debt. That's healthy when there are new activities underway. It's unhealthy if it reaches the point that debt service overloads the income.

Note that in a time of low interest rates all corporate entities, including the Federal government will tend to take on more debt. The service cost of that debt is less. There are initiatives that can be better financed with debt if the interest is low and there is sufficient cash flow expected from the initiative.