Replying to a message of Earl Croasmun to Dave Drum:

 EC> ~> The last president to actually balance the budget and pay something
 EC> on the debt ~> was ..... wait for it ..... (drumroll) ..... Bill "I
 EC> did not have sex with that ~> woman" Clinton.

 EC> You really need to stay within your limitations.  If you want to call
 EC> the budget "balanced" it became so not because of him but
in spite of
 EC> him.  He consistently proposed budgets with higher deficits than what
 EC> eventually got passed.

I ignore all the 'financial finagling' that politicians use to make various claims
about budgets and balanced budgets.  If the national debt was $1 greater at the
end of the year than it was at the start, then the budget wasn't balanced and there
was a deficit.  When that occurs and the budget was 'balanced' it was caused by
the various and sundry items that congress has placed 'off budget.'  AFAIK that
national debt has risen in every year for the past several decades regardless of
who was president or which party controlled congress.

Accounting in general and honest accounting in particular are not strong points
for politicians.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+