What should we have done with the Clinton budget surplus?

Question

Many Conservatives argued, at the time, that the budget surplus should be given to wealthy Republican voters.

Liberals argued that it should be saved for emergencies, or used to support our crumbling, schools, roads and bridges.

I realized Bush spent it all the surplus on Liberating the Iraqi people, but what do you think we should have done with the money?

Answer 1

it should be illegal for you to come on here and lie like that.

the surplus was nothing more than a shell game.

that being said, the gov't has been spending like a bunch of drunken sailors for decades.  there is no longer a difference between reps and dems social habits.

it should have been given back to the people it was stolen from.

Answer 2

First of all, the so-called surplus was a myth. Secondly, almost all of the alleged surplus came from swapping out higher-interest debt for lower, shorter-term debt. As such, the "surplus" was mostly a product of accounting.

Answer 3

Huh?  Tax money is not given to people based on party or ideology.  

Liberals actually critisized Clinton for the surplus.

By the time Bush was in office, there was no surplus.

As for what the surplus should have been used for?  To pay down some of the national debt, though it was so minor of a surplus and was only brief that it would barely have done anything

Answer 4

Pointless war or save the crumbling infrastructure?

How about save it for emergencies like Katrina or the floods happening right now in the Midwest?

Answer 5

The surplus was never enough to even pay the interest on the national debt, so it's kind of a moot issue.  And I don't recall any Conservative arguing that the surplus should be given to wealthy Republican voters.  You just made that up.  The Conservatives thought it would be best to pay down the debt.  After the biggest surplus year, 1999, the liberals in Congress started the Pork Train up again.  The 2000 budget was loaded with earmarks, the 2001 budget even more so.  The Repubs, naturally, joined right in when it became apparent that elections were on the line if they didn't bring home the bacon.

Answer 6

Well, we still had a large national debt, so, you figure it out.

Answer 7

Please point to the year we had this surplus.  That would have to be a year the debt did not go up, unless you call loan money income.  

The debt has gone up every year, for decades.  So, I don't understand how they claim we had a surplus.  If we did, how come we had to borrow money?

Answer 8

Paid down the debt incurred by the Johnson administration's social programs