On the recordFebruary 25, 2010
The Senator from Rhode Island is correct. The Senator from Kentucky has talked about the Nation's deficit and debt, and he should realize that when President Clinton left office in January of 2001, the national budget was in better shape than it had been in a generation. In fiscal year 2000, the final year in which President Clinton had full responsibility for the national budget, our Nation's budget surplus was $236 billion--budget surplus. That year, the debt held by the public declined for the third consecutive year. As President Clinton left office, budget surpluses were projected to continue throughout the next 10 years. CBO, in its January 2001 budget outlook, projected surpluses of $5 trillion for 2001 through 2010, including nearly $800 billion in 2010 alone. Those surpluses were so large, as the Senator from Rhode Island indicated, that the Congressional Budget Office told us the debt held by the public would be entirely paid off by 2006. Fast forward 8 years, at the end of George W. Bush's Presidency, that administration, and the national debt had climbed from $5 trillion that he inherited to more than double that amount.
