Interesting Numbers
I’m really fighting to find information on the candidates because I want to be able to make an educated guess on who to vote for. Everyone is saying that Bush turned the largest budget surplus in history into the largest deficit in history. Then someone else told me that there really wasn’t ever a TRUE budget surplus. So I said well let’s look at the national debt. If there was a real budget surplus the national debt would have gone down……..right? I found the Federal Budget. Then from there, I went and looked at the National Debt. So explain this to me, if Clinton had the largest surplus in history why did the national debt continue to rise every year that he was in office? I do understand that the National Debt is currently rising at twice the rate it was with Clinton in office. However, right or wrong I understand why it is rising. Slugish Economy and War answer those questions. Anyway, I think it’s interesting how everything can be spun.
Well, here’s the press release about the budget surplus for Sept 2000 - Sept 2001: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/pubpress/2001-29.pdf
But I think that these are BUDGET surpluses, not actual surpluses. In other words, it’s all on paper and we still have no money.
Clinton was credited with balancing the budget during his eight years.
This site shows the national debt to the penny. As of today, our national debt has risen $1,716,206,596,826.53 since September 20, 1999. That doens’t really mean much, though, because it looks like it’s been a steady increase since 1987.
Comment by slyflame — 9/15/2004 @ 3:10 pm
And to add, this page show the estimated budget deficit for fiscal years 2002, 2003, 2004 and projections through 2008 (I can’t tell if 2004 is a projection also, since we’re technically not done yet).
The numbers there show the deficit at negative $158 billion in 2002, negative $304 billion in 2003, and negative $307 billion for 2004.
I haven’t read the fine print, though.
Comment by slyflame — 9/15/2004 @ 3:17 pm
*grin* I stand corrected. Here’s a better look at the trend. The line marks the debt at the end of September 2001.
Okay, I’m done now. Back to work!
Comment by slyflame — 9/15/2004 @ 3:40 pm
Uhm, apparently images aren’t allowed in comments. Silly me.
Here’s the chart I was talking about.
NOW I’m done.
Comment by slyflame — 9/15/2004 @ 3:42 pm
Well, here’s an idea, to Clinton who did supposedly balance the budget. If we’re paying 318 Billion per year just to pay the interest on the money we owe, how about we take that Surplus and spend on reducing the national debt. Instead of spending the money on other programs and not solving the real problem! Just think what the government could do if they didn’t have to throw 318 billion dollars per year away!
Comment by Todder — 9/15/2004 @ 4:14 pm
*grin* I just now went looking at the links you posted. Silly me - the first one is a much quicker resource than the government’s pages!
I’m not sure what surplus you’re referring to, though. As far as I can tell, there isn’t one and hasn’t been since 2001.
Comment by slyflame — 9/15/2004 @ 5:03 pm
I was talking about the Suposed Surplus that Clinton had. I know that Bush hasn’t ever had one. Basically what I’m saying is that Clinton may have had a budget surplus but that money never showed up as paying off any of the national debt. In fact, the National Debt continued to increase during the Clinton years. Explain that to me.
Comment by Todder — 9/16/2004 @ 7:30 am