"All I know is that under Clinton the deficit shrank dramatically, and under Reagan it exploded"
You are correct and here are the figures to prove it.
It is interesting that in spite of the shrinking deficit we are still adding to our national debt. We have actually added over a Trillion during Clinton's presidency and we obviously are not running a surplus as the debt continues to increase.
The best argument against tax decreases is that we have no surplus and probably will not have one. As the economy returns to normal and if we have a recession, we will once again have deficits.
Current
02/16/2001 $5,713,324,669,859.74
CURRENT
MONTH AMOUNT
02/15/2001 $5,712,465,542,248.62
02/14/2001 $5,700,887,675,778.04
02/13/2001 $5,702,465,484,866.60
02/12/2001 $5,699,501,406,898.13
02/09/2001 $5,698,504,013,467.32
02/08/2001 $5,697,248,248,419.78
02/07/2001 $5,694,062,535,040.67
02/06/2001 $5,696,112,552,640.62
02/05/2001 $5,692,234,596,517.07
02/02/2001 $5,692,920,049,098.18
02/01/2001 $5,703,346,472,448.65
PRIOR
MONTHS
01/31/2001 $5,716,070,587,057.36
12/29/2000 $5,662,216,013,697.37
11/30/2000 $5,709,699,281,427.00
10/31/2000 $5,657,327,531,667.14
PRIOR FISCAL
YEARS
09/29/2000 $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
09/30/1991 $3,665,303,351,697.03
09/28/1990 $3,233,313,451,777.25
09/29/1989 $2,857,430,960,187.32
09/30/1988 $2,602,337,712,041.16
09/30/1987 $2,350,276,890,953.00
SOURCE: BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT
publicdebt.treas.gov
Little joe |
