- madskillz wrote:
- wiki.answers.com/Q/Was_there_a_national_surplus_when_Clinton_left_office
Was there a national surplus when Clinton left office?
Answer:
Yes, 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.
These are the numbers for deficits if you notice Clinton never had one.
Federal DEFICIT 2011 = $1.7 Trillion (projected)
Federal DEBT from the Treasury Department Website
09/30/2010 13,561,623,030,891.79
09/30/2009 11,909,829,003,511.75
09/30/2008 10,024,724,896,912.49
09/30/2007 9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2006 8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999 5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996 5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995 4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994 4,692,749,910,013.32
09/30/1993 4,411,488,883,139.38
09/30/1992 4,064,620,655,521.66