Did Bill Clinton ever produce a balanced budget?

[originalpckelly]

Poll question: Did Bill Clinton ever produce a balanced budget?

:shrug:

[craigmatic]

1. He balanced it on the backs of the poor by ending welfare.

[phleshdef]

2. Really? Welfare was ended?

[craigmatic]

6. Traditional welfare was ended in favor of this program that puts people off the roles

because there's a limit to how long people can stay on in addition to this back to work program they have to attend. The program doesn't work and they get less money to live on compared to the original program. Don't take my word for it just see 'bowling for columbine'.

[phleshdef]

7. Well someone forgot to tell Southern West Virginia (where I grew up)

Because there are plenty of people on welfare there now that were on it 20-25 years ago when I was a kid. Some of them deserve it, some of them are just gaming the system, but its definately not gone anywhere.

[trotsky]

3. Technically no.

Since he was counting Social Security's surpluses as revenue, just as most politicians have for decades. But he was on the right track and if we had kept his tax rates, who knows.

[originalpckelly]

4. Sorry, it doesn't matter that other politicians have done it.

It's bullshit accounting. It's almost as bad as what Enron did.

[trotsky]

5. I wasn't offering it as an excuse.

I happen to agree it was misleading to say the least - but he was taking things in the right direction and had a projected surplus (WITHOUT SS receipts) by something like 2001 or 2002 if we had stayed on that path, didn't he?