Excellent article on how usually the case in claims such as this, it has more to do with Washington doublespeak and political smoke and mirrors.
Understanding what happened requires understanding two concepts of what makes up the national debt. The national debt is made up of public debt and intragovernmental holdings. The public debt is debt held by the public, normally including things such as treasury bills, savings bonds, and other instruments the public can purchase from the government. Intragovernmental holdings, on the other hand, is when the government borrows money from itself--mostly borrowing money from social security.
Fiscal Year.....Year Ending............National Debt..................Deficit
FY1993..........09/30/1993............$4.411488 trillion
FY1994..........09/30/1994............$4.692749 trillion............$281.26 billion
FY1995..........09/29/1995............$4.973982 trillion............$281.23 billion
FY1996..........09/30/1996............$5.224810 trillion............$250.83 billion
FY1997..........09/30/1997............$5.413146 trillion............$188.34 billion
FY1998..........09/30/1998............$5.526193 trillion............$113.05 billion
FY1999..........09/30/1999............$5.656270 trillion............$130.08 billion
FY2000..........09/29/2000............$5.674178 trillion............$17.91 billion
FY2001..........09/28/2001............$5.807463 trillion............$133.29 billion
As can clearly be seen, in no year did the national debt go down, nor did Clinton leave President Bush with a surplus that Bush subsequently turned into a deficit. Yes, the deficit was almost eliminated in FY2000 (ending in September 2000 with a deficit of "only" $17.9 billion), but it never reached zero--let alone a positive surplus number. And Clinton's last budget proposal for FY2001, which ended in September 2001, generated a $133.29 billion deficit. The growing deficits started in the year of the last Clinton budget, not in the first year of the Bush administration.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5u7zvo
Please note that the article references actual links Treasury reports to substantiate.
Understanding what happened requires understanding two concepts of what makes up the national debt. The national debt is made up of public debt and intragovernmental holdings. The public debt is debt held by the public, normally including things such as treasury bills, savings bonds, and other instruments the public can purchase from the government. Intragovernmental holdings, on the other hand, is when the government borrows money from itself--mostly borrowing money from social security.
Fiscal Year.....Year Ending............National Debt..................Deficit
FY1993..........09/30/1993............$4.411488 trillion
FY1994..........09/30/1994............$4.692749 trillion............$281.26 billion
FY1995..........09/29/1995............$4.973982 trillion............$281.23 billion
FY1996..........09/30/1996............$5.224810 trillion............$250.83 billion
FY1997..........09/30/1997............$5.413146 trillion............$188.34 billion
FY1998..........09/30/1998............$5.526193 trillion............$113.05 billion
FY1999..........09/30/1999............$5.656270 trillion............$130.08 billion
FY2000..........09/29/2000............$5.674178 trillion............$17.91 billion
FY2001..........09/28/2001............$5.807463 trillion............$133.29 billion
As can clearly be seen, in no year did the national debt go down, nor did Clinton leave President Bush with a surplus that Bush subsequently turned into a deficit. Yes, the deficit was almost eliminated in FY2000 (ending in September 2000 with a deficit of "only" $17.9 billion), but it never reached zero--let alone a positive surplus number. And Clinton's last budget proposal for FY2001, which ended in September 2001, generated a $133.29 billion deficit. The growing deficits started in the year of the last Clinton budget, not in the first year of the Bush administration.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5u7zvo
Please note that the article references actual links Treasury reports to substantiate.
