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Clinton ran deficits throught all 8 years of his term, and one can go to the US Treasury Department and looking through the history of the total outstanding debt through Clintons term.
Every year Clinton was in office, the total national debt continued to climb.
How Clinton managed to claim a surplus was that while the general operating budgets ran deficits but Clinton borrowed from numerous off budget funds to make the on budget fund a surplus.
For example, in 2000, Clinton claimed a $230B surplus, but Clinton borrowed
$152.3B from Social Security
$30.9B from Civil Service Retirement Fund
$18.5B from Federal Supplementary Medical insurance Trust Fund
$15.0B from Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund
$9.0B from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund
$8.2B from Military Retirement Fund
$3.8B from Transportation Trust Funds
$1.8B from Employee Life Insurance & Retirement fund
$7.0B from others
Total borrowed from off budget funds $246.5B, meaning that his $230B surplus is actually a $16.5B deficit.
($246.5B borrowed - $230B claimed surplus = $16.5B actual deficit).
If there is ever a true surplus, then the national debt will go down.
the national debt did not go down one year during the Clinton administration.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoYes, there most definitely was a federal budget surplus when Clinton left office.
In Clinton's final full fiscal year -- fiscal year (FY) 2000 -- the federal budget surplus was $230 billion. The public debt decreased by this same amount -- $230 billion.
Some claim there was not a surplus because the gross national debt increased by $18 billion in the same year, FY 2000. How could the gross national debt increase while the public debt decrease? The answer is due to trust fund accounting requirements, as is required by law. Trust funds (unlike the federal government itself) are allowed accumulate money, for purposes of the trust fund's future anticipated spending needs, and so trust fund accounting requires the trust fund money be segregated. This is unlike most people's personal accounting methods, so can cause confusion in interpreting the numbers. Following is why there was a budget surplus with corresponding decrease in public debt, while the gross public debt increased in FY 2000.
By law, the social security and medicare trust funds are included in the calculations of the budget surplus. In FY 2000, both trust fund accounts had more revenues than expenses. This means -- for example-- that social security's tax revenues (from the payroll tax) were greater than social security's expenses (payments to the retired beneficiaries.) The trust fund surpluses were about the same as the budget surplus. Trust fund accounting requires that surplus monies in the trust fund be segregated from the government's general account. This is so that the trust fund monies are held in reserve for payments to future beneficiaries, and cannot be spent willy nilly for building bridges, etc; however, the trust fund is allowed to earn interest income on any surplus it holds. Therefore, the trust fund purchases treasury bonds (or their equivalent) from the Treasury department.
The Treasury department therefore doesn't need to borrow that money from the public, which is why the public debt decreases by the same amount as the surplus. However, since the Treasury now owes this surplus money to the trust fund, the gross national public debt (which includes both the public debt and debts owed to the trust funds) does not decrease.
Still confused? Compare it to your own personal finances. It is easier to understand what is going on. Say you start the year with no money in your checking account and $10,000 in credit card debt. Your "public debt" and your "family debt" is $10,000, the amount your credit card debt.
At the end of the year you have $10,000 in your checking account and the same $10,000 credit card debt -- because you earned $10,000 than you spent that year. You had a $10,000 surplus. No one could disagree with this.
Case 1: You decide to use this $10,000 surplus in your checking account to pay down your credit card debt. If you did so, you'd see your credit card debt (the same as your "public debt") decrease by $10,000, to zero. You had a surplus, and you used it to pay off your credit card debt, so your "public debt" and your "family debt" is zero.
Case 2: Say instead you decide to save this $10,000 surplus for your 10 year old son's future college tuition -- you deposit the $10,000 into a bank account titled: "son's college trust fund account". It is now his money for his future college tuition, needed 8 years hence. You notice that the trust fund bank account earns 3% while the credit card interest rate is 30%. Clearly you'd be better off paying off the credit card debt with the trust fund $10,000. So your family borrows $10,000 from the trust fund and pays off the credit card debt. And what is the result? You had a surplus, and your "public debt" decreased to zero, and your "family debt" is $10,000 (owed to the college trust fund).
In case 2 you had a surplus, and your public debt decreased by the amount of the surplus, your family debt remained the same. That's how trust fund works. This is the same results as the federal budget in FY2000. Note that in case 2 didn't fundamentally change your finances compared to case 1. You didn't spend any more money than in case 1. Your income and expenditures were exactly the same as in case 1. The trust fund accounting methods simply causes your "public debt" and "family debt" to diverge.
The trust fund holdings are for future anticipated expenses. Most people don't have trust funds in their personal finances, so all this isn't common to them. You could argue that if your family debt figure includes the amount you owe to the education trust fund for expenses 8 years hence, why doesn't it include the amount you know you will owe for gasoline expenses 8 years hence? This is a good question. What it means for the federal government is that trust fund accounting methods produce a divergence in "gross national debt" and "public debt" figures, but this divergence is due to an arbitrary accounting rule rather than anything fundamental about the nation's fiances.
Glossary:
Federal budget surplus: When the total of all revenues (personal income tax, business income tax, medicare and social security payroll tax, excise taxes, etc.) exceed the total of all expenditures (building bridges, paying government employees salaries, medicare expenses, and social security expenses, etc.)
Public debt: Total of debt owed to the public (those individuals, businesses, and foreign governments who have purchased treasury securities).
Gross National debt: Total of the public dept plus amounts owed to government trust funds like social security and medicare.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoClinton ran deficits throught all 8 years of his term, and one can go to the US Treasury Department and looking through the history of the total outstanding debt throught Clintons term. (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np)
Every year Clinton was in office, the total national debt continued to climb.
How Clinton managed to claim a surplus was that while the general operating budgets ran deficits but Clinton borrowed from numerous off budget funds to make the on budget fund a surplus.
For example, in 2000, Clinton claimed a $230B surplus, but Clinton borrowed
$152.3B from Social Security
$30.9B from Civil Service Retirement Fund
$18.5B from Federal Supplementary Medical insurance Trust Fund
$15.0B from Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund
$9.0B from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund
$8.2B from Military Retirement Fund
$3.8B from Transportation Trust Funds
$1.8B from Employee Life Insurance & Retirement fund
$7.0B from others
Total borrowed from off budget funds $246.5B, meaning that his $230B surplus is actually a $16.5B deficit.
($246.5B borrowed - $230B claimed surplus = $16.5B actual deficit).
If there is ever a true surplus, then the national debt will go down.
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoAccording to Factcheck.org and other similar sites, President Clinton left office with a huge budget surplus: the amount was $1.9 billion in fiscal 1999, and then, $86.4 billion in fiscal 2000. In fact, the last three years of his presidency, the government regularly took in more money than it spent.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agonone would be the answer that comes to mind - he actually ran up the deficit by the largest amount to his point in time. 4 months before Reagan took office the national debt was $711.9 billion, and 8 months after Reagan left office the national debt was $2.1907 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoyes, there was one 12-month period in which there was surplus under Clinton. It was not a calendar year and I am not sure that it was an official fiscal year.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago2 billion dollars
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago230b
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There was a surplus when Bill Clinton left office, but a deficit when Bush left office.
Did president bush inherit a budget surplus fron president Clinton?
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Who was the first president to assume office with a surplus in over thirty years?
George W. Bush ...................he took office with a federal surplus of $127 billion, left by Pres. Bill Clinton..........
Did Bill Clinton's policies hurt America's economy?
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When did Bill Clinton end his presidency?
President Clinton left office on 20 January 2001.
Why is it important for President Bill Clinton to pardon Marc Rich?
Bill Clinton left office on January 20, 2001, so he no longer has the ability to pardon anyone. That power is reserved for the sitting President.
How old was Bill Clinton when he was president?
Bill Clinton was 46 years old when he was first elected and inaugurated (birthdate August 19, 1946). He was 50 when he was re-elected in 1996, and 54 when he left office in 2001.
When did Bill Clinton take office of president?
Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States on November 3, 1992 and reelected in November of 1996. He took office on January 20,1993 He left office on Janury 20, 2001
What was the unemployment when Clinton left office?
Unemployment was down to 4.2% when Clinton left office, the lowest it had been in 8 years, per US Labor Bureau stats.
Did the National Debt increase when Bill Clinton was president?
No. Bill Clinton actually shrunk our national debt to almost nothing when he was president. This is incorrect. The national debt increased every year of the Clinton administration. In no year did it go down. What Clinton did is reduce the yearly DEFICIT, a couple of years. And even had a surplus budget in CONJUNCTION with a Republican controlled Congress. And that is good. But in no year was the surplus enough to offset the interest on the debt so the debt increased each year.
Did George H.W. Bush or Bill Clinton have a higher approval rating?
George H.W. Bush left office with an approval rating of 65%. It is thought by many that he lost his second term only because of a mistake in the counting of votes in the states Ohio, Iowa and Virginia. Bill Clinton left office with an approval rating of 42%. Anyone who tells you otherwise is simply lying.
Does Bill Clinton write with his right or left hand?
yes
