On the recordMarch 9, 2010
I do not quarrel with the Senator from Alabama about our national debt and the threat that it possesses. I certainly understand we are borrowing a lot of money from countries overseas, and we want to see that come to an end. That kind of indebtedness leads to a dependency which is not healthy for our economy or our future or our children. I certainly would agree with the Senator from Alabama on that. I was not here for his entire presentation, but there are several things I think should be made clear for the record. The point is, some 9 years ago, when President William Clinton left office, he left office with a national debt, total accumulated national debt throughout our history of about $5.7 trillion. But when he left office, we were in surplus. We were actually generating a surplus in the Federal Treasury, and the surplus was being used to extend the life of the Social Security trust fund. We were adding more and more years of solvency to Social Security because we were generating a surplus. It is hard to imagine that this was the case only 9 years ago, and yet it was.
