Replying to a message of Dave Drum to TIM RICHARDSON:

 DD> -=> TIM RICHARDSON wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-

 TR>> "The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be
 TR>> refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of
 TR>> public officials should be tempered and controlled, and
 TR>> the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed......
 TR>> People must again learn to work, instead of living on
 TR>> public assistance."

 DD>> Who was the last president to balance the budget??? Wasn't
 DD>> it that well known darling of the "left" and notorious
 DD>> philanderer, William Jefferson "Slick Willy" Clinton?

 TR>> No....it wasn't.

 DD> Yes, it was ...

 DD> Q: When was the US federal budget last balanced?

 DD> A: In 1998, Bill Clinton presented the first balanced
 DD> federal budget (with no annual deficit) since 1969 ... 

 DD> http://answers.encyclopedia.com/question/us-federal-budget-l
 DD> ast-balanced-206089.html

If the national debt was greater at the end of December, 1998, than it
was at the beginning of January, 1998, the budget wasn't balanced.
Since the debt *was* greater in December than it was in January, the
statement is incorrect.

 DD>> Who was the last president actually to apply budgetary
 DD>> surplus to paying down the deficit/debt? See above.

 TR>> He did no such thing.

 DD> Yes, he did.

 DD> President Clinton announces another record budget surplus

 DD> From CNN White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace

 DD> September 27, 2000

 DD> WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton announced Wednesday
 DD> that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000
 DD> amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in
 DD> U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of
 DD> $122.7 billion.

 DD> "Eight years ago, our future was at risk," Clinton said
 DD> Wednesday morning. "Economic growth was low, unemployment
 DD> was high, interest rates were high, the federal debt had
 DD> quadrupled in the previous 12 years. When Vice President
 DD> Gore and I took office, the budget deficit was $290
 DD> billion, and it was projected this year the budget deficit
 DD> would be $455 billion."

 DD> Instead, the president explained, the $5.7 trillion national
 DD> debt has been reduced by $360 billion in the last three
 DD> years -- $223 billion this year lone.

 DD> This represents, Clinton said, "the largest one-year debt
 DD> reduction in the history of the United States." 

 DD> More here:

 DD> http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/09/27/clint
 DD> on.surplus/

 TR>> He started without any deficit, and managed to run the
 TR>> national debt up by about $1.4 trillion, and left a
 TR>> deficit of $133.29 billion!

 DD> Who provided your figures? The catamites at the Cato
 DD> Institute? 

 TR>> By the way....the money Clinton *claimed* was a `surplus'
 TR>> was borrowed!

 DD> Even without the Social Security Trust funds there WAS a
 DD> surplus.

No there wasn't.  If there had been a surplus the national debt would not
have increased.  Since the debt did increase in that and every other year
of his administration, there was no surplus.

 DD> The last balanced budget before Clinton was in 1969, the end
 DD> of Lyndon Johnson's administration and the start of Richard
 DD> M. Nixon's first year in the White House. Deficits grew
 DD> dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, peaking in 1992 at
 DD> $290 billion - or 4.7 percent of the gross domestic
 DD> product. (Excluding Social Security taxes, the amount was
 DD> actually far higher.) A combination of increased spending -
 DD> including social and military programs - and lower tax
 DD> rates drove up deficits. Economic factors, including two
 DD> recessions, also contributed to the spikes. 

 DD> The last Republican president to balance the budget was
 DD> Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Maybe.

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