[quote=CONCHO]
Not taking sides here, but there really was no “Clinton surplus.” The illusion of a surplus was created by borrowing from social security. This article gives a pretty good overview of the trickery involved. During his time in office, the national debt increased 26% from $4.5T to $5.7T. You can see this for yourself over in the data section at treasurydirect.gov.
[/quote]
I think there’s a bit of a misconception about the borrowing from social security. It’s not an option. (I’m not disputing the fallacy of the Clinton budget surplus. I vaguely remember looking into it and finding the argument lacking, but it’s not something I want to look into again.) If there is a surplus of social security collected over social security paid out, it MUST be used to purchase government debt, and will result in an increase in total government debt. That’s statutory. There are no other legal places for that surplus to go. Theoretically, if there is a balanced budget, it will also result in a net pay down of other public debt.
