In article ,
"PrecisionmachinisT" wrote:


There was, but it was largely accounting. The extra money brought in by
the Social Security "Surplus" was counted as revenue. This was despite
the fact that the only place, by law, it could go was into Treasury
Securities. So, the current accounts surplus was largely related to
taking a long-term liability (those SS-surplus Treasuries) and counting
it as a short-term asset. When you back those out, you are again in
deficit.

Since the same accounting practices are still in place today, technically
there was indeed a surplus at that time.
Thus the statement "There was but it was largely accounting.(g)


It's just that the issue has been turned into a matter of semantics by the
right wing in attempt to deflect the fact that Government debt was indeed at
a historical low point when Bush took over.


It isn't a matter of semantics, though. It is the major reason that
we are going to have major problems with SS coming soon. It is a little
incongruous, though for the GOP to suggest that it was some kind of
slight of hand on Clinton's part. While it was slight of hand, it was a
bipartisan slight of hand that had gone on for years.
The funny part of the Clinton surplus is he largely has the GOP to
thank for it. They worked against Mr. C's baser instincts and stopped
him from enacting en total that really big tax increase he wanted in '91
or '92. THat would have cut the expansion off aborning.
The other interesting thing is he was a spectator on this (as are
most presidents, Pres. O included). . It happened largely because of the
Greenspan/Gates expansion. Greenspan because he kept rates low and money
flowing and Gates as a proxy for the spectactular productivity gains we
saw from the computerization of commerce. I would also like to point out
that the biggest increases came AFTER tax cuts, specifically the cap
gains tax cut.

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