President William Jefferson Clinton did.
Newt has been going around claiming that he balanced the budget. He did not. He and the House Republicans passed the balanced budget that President Clinton submitted.
How did he do it? Clinton isn’t shy about explaining what happened on his watch. The budget deals he made with the congressional Republicans were significant, but not nearly as significant as the tax increase on the wealthy that he passed, without a single Republican vote, in his first budget in 1993.
President Clinton, despite Newt and the Congressional Republicans balanced the budget. Sure, Newt and the other Republican congressmen nibbled at the edges, but ultimately the budget was balanced by a revenue increase, and a revenue increase that drove prosperity in America through the roof.
FactCheck.org corroborates this as well.
The Clinton years showed the effects of a large tax increase that Clinton pushed through in his first year, and that Republicans incorrectly claim is the “largest tax increase in history.” It fell almost exclusively on upper-income taxpayers. Clinton’s fiscal 1994 budget also contained some spending restraints. An equally if not more powerful influence was the booming economy and huge gains in the stock markets, the so-called dot-com bubble, which brought in hundreds of millions in unanticipated tax revenue from taxes on capital gains and rising salaries.
By Newt’s logic, if he happened to be in Augusta during the Masters and he was in the gallery watching, Newt would later claim that he won the Masters. So while you happened to be in Washington at the time of the Clinton surplus, Mr. Gingrich, you certainly can’t claim credit for the balanced budget.
Uh huh. But he didn’t do it voluntarily or because it was his plan.
His budget and his budget outlook during his first term had a 20-year plan to eliminating the deficit.
Sorry, but you can’t keep rewriting history.
The difference between having a plan (20 years or otherwise) and actually executing on that plan are very different things. The budget was balanced in spite of Newt and the GOP.
No need to rewrite history when the record so clearly supports the Clinton balanced budget.
No, my friend.
The GOP Majority would never have passed an unbalanced Clinton budget (as per the plan).
So, Clinton, wisely – and I do give him that credit – offered up a balanced budget thus pulling the rug out from the new GOP majority.
So, yes, credit is due Clinton, but he wouldn’t have done it without the GOP majority.
Why is this so tough for you guys?
Look, when I see Clinton on TV, I’d like to have him back. He’d be so much better than your current mess.
Deal with reality and stop trying to click the heals of your ruby red slippers and pretending.
When you say ‘federal deficit’ I presume you mean national debt.
it did go down slightly, but in reality, like most government budgets, the numbers are cooked.
There was no surplus. Take the time to read and completely digest this article which explains the whole economic mess and how the books were cooked. Both Newt and Clinton are big fat fabricators and fraudsters, to claim any surplus ever existed. Our economy was skewered even worse during his presidency. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np
I think you need to learn the difference between debt and deficit.
http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16
I apologize for the confusion, but I wanted you to post the last post I had entered, because it had this link (above) in it, you probably just misunderstood me. The one I wanted you to save had this link to Steiner’s article, rather than just the treasury link, which is given as one of his links in the article.
The article goes into depth regarding deficits, debt, surpluses. It’s all there and explained very well. I accidentally entered the treasury site Mr. Steiner posts in his article instead of the link to his article in that particular response you approved. Anyway, please check this out and let me know what you think.
Once again, sorry for the confusion.
Respectfully, Bonnie Y.Moore
That’s only true if you consider intragovernmental debt as real in the same way public and private debt (both domestic and international) are real. Most people don’t consider it as real debt. Steiner is advocating bad accounting to make a political point. He’s wrong.
Steiner is just another townhall.com crank.