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You're confused: the annual "deficit" and the total "national debt" are two different things. The deficit is the difference between income and spending in a fi

You're confused: the annual "deficit" and the total "national debt" are two different things. The deficit is the difference between income and spending in a fixed time period. The national debt is the cumulative amount owed. A balanced budget (i.e., zero deficit) or even a large but insufficient surplus doesn't stop the national debt growing. It's like a credit card. Even if every month you pay off what you spent the previous month (balanced budget), the interest keeps compounding on the principal you owe and your total debt keeps growing. Unless the government makes a serious effort at paying off the interest and paying down the principal, the national debt will keep growing. (Of course, the principal plus interest becomes the new principal on each compounding cycle, so the principal is a moving target.)

innocentoldguy 5y ago
I am not confusing the deficit nor the national debt. I simply mentioned both. I addressed the deficit in my original comment. I'll do so again for the sake of convenience: Clinton's tax revenue was never enough to cover all government spending. In every year that Clinton claimed to have a surplus, government spending increased by a bigger amount than the claimed surplus. In other words, Clinton borrowed from other areas of government (social security, etc.) to fill the gap between tax revenues and government spending. Here are both the national debt and the deficit for the Clinton years: Fiscal Year National Debt Deficit 1994 $4.692749 trillion $281.26 billion 1995 $4.973982 trillion $281.23 billion 1996 $5.224810 trillion $250.83 billion 1997 $5.413146 trillion $188.34 billion 1998 $5.526193 trillion $113.05 billion 1999 $5.656270 trillion $130.08 billion 2000 $5.674178 trillion $17.91 billion 2001 $5.807463 trillion $133.29 billion Since you brought up a credit card example, what Clinton basically did was pay down his Visa using his MasterCard. We are still paying off his MasterCard. UPDATE: Fixed table formatting.

innocentoldguy 5y ago

I am not confusing the deficit nor the national debt. I simply mentioned both. I addressed the deficit in my original comment. I'll do so again for the sake of convenience: Clinton's tax revenue was never enough to cover all government spending. In every year that Clinton claimed to have a surplus, government spending increased by a bigger amount than the claimed surplus. In other words, Clinton borrowed from other areas of government (social security, etc.) to fill the gap between tax revenues and government spending. Here are both the national debt and the deficit for the Clinton years: Fiscal Year National Debt Deficit 1994 $4.692749 trillion $281.26 billion 1995 $4.973982 trillion $281.23 billion 1996 $5.224810 trillion $250.83 billion 1997 $5.413146 trillion $188.34 billion 1998 $5.526193 trillion $113.05 billion 1999 $5.656270 trillion $130.08 billion 2000 $5.674178 trillion $17.91 billion 2001 $5.807463 trillion $133.29 billion Since you brought up a credit card example, what Clinton basically did was pay down his Visa using his MasterCard. We are still paying off his MasterCard. UPDATE: Fixed table formatting.