Many People on this Forum say that Clinton was bad but when he left there was no debt . How they justify ?

Answer 1

Many of those on this forum are republicans, which are now the minority party, George bush has never enjoyed the popularity that Clinton did and still does. I didn't vote for Bill only because he dodged the draft and I served, I didn't vote for Bush because he found a differnt way of avoiding the war, but on the ver all, Clinton was a good president. He tried to do every thing he said he was going to do, so no one should have been suprized, he also defeated a sitting president which is rare. So I don't think you can judge the consensious of the American people by this forum,btw

Clinton did an excellent job considering the republicans had the majority in both houses for most of his term!

There was debt although not like the war is creating. And while I dint vote for him I didnt vote republican then either but Libertarian

I gave you a thumbs up but notice how few anti Clinton comments compaired to the thumbs down, the republicans and ne cons do that, they also report views when they conflict as they do not believe in free speech or intellegent debates

Answer 2

Don't confuse the deficit with the debt. Clinton did indeed leave no deficit, and turned it into a surplus, so for the first time in decades we were actually not borrowing more money and stopped the accumulation of *more* debt ... but in the short time he was in office he was not able to even come close to starting to pay off the national debt left (largely) by the Reagan years.

Of course, this was all abandoned when Bush took office ... the deficit soared again, and the debt again started growing. (And by the way ... that debt is largely with foreign banks ... we owe a lot of money to China.)

Also, the thing to remember about the deficit, is that when they talk about "tax cuts" during a deficit, that means that the debt for those tax cuts is passed to future generations (to pay with their taxes). So a "tax cut" today is basically a tax *increase* passed on our children and grandchildren.

So your main point is valid. True (fiscal) conservatives recognize that things were fiscally much better during the Clinton years. That's why a lot of conservatives are abandoning the Republican party. The image of the "tax and spend" Democrat doesn't play any more, now that we've had 12 years of a Republican congress and the spending has only gone up.

Clinton doesn't deserve *all* the credit ... but he deserves some.

In source, I include an article from the Cato Institute (not a bastion of Democrats), that basically points out that the most fiscally responsible years are when the White House and Congress are from different parties ... it doesn't matter which party dominates which ... although the best formula is when we've had a Republican congress and a Democratic president ... the *worst* years are when we've had both the congress and White House dominated by the same party (regardless of the party).

Answer 3

Wishful thinking .............the was a national debt under Clinton

The Debt To the Penny
Prior Fiscal
Years

09/29/2006 $8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/28/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06
09/29/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999 $5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 $5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 $5,413,146,011,397.34

Answer 4

The idea that there was no debt is BS. It was a big paper shuffle left in place as a political game to make the next president look bad. Its called creative bookeeping. He also was the one who allowed and encouraged the dot-com bubble to grow all out reasonable perportions resulting in a massive hit to the economy. It was Clinton's policies that allowed the terrorists into the US and let them learn to be pilots so less than a year after he left office thousands of people could be killed.

Bush is no better but at least the economy recovered from what Clinton left us with. It's actually growing and jobs are being created. Clinton's mess cost many people their jobs and their life savings. How can any rational person defend Clinton?

Answer 5

There most certainly WAS a debt. A huge one. There wasn't a DEFICIT, but there was a DEBT.

And, Clinton had several things working for him. The stock market hadn't crashed yet, and the dot-com bubble paid a lot of taxes. The FCC auctioned off radio frequencies for cell phones, bringing in still more billions. And, Clinton refinanced the national debt (see? there was a debt!) with lower-interest short-term notes, which is a little like refinancing your house with a ARM mortgage.

After he left office, the stock market crashed. 9-11 dove the nation deeper into recession, causing tax revenues to fall. The war in Afghanistan started, and the war in Iraq moved to invasion phase. All of the radio frequencies were sold. And, the interest rates went up, and those short-term loans that BillC used to refi the national debt were replaced with higher-cost loans.

You see, it really does help if you don't believe what you politicians tell you when they're running for office!!!

Answer 6

he was not that bad, a good speaker, but no there was debt, the idea there was no debt was a future income idea, there was a large actual debt. The issue is how they do the accounting part of it.

Of course with the war and the hurricanes and the health care for medicare drugs spending is out the roof, but there was a debt.

Answer 7

Clinton left a balanced budget with a 40 billion dollar surplus.

He still left quite a massive debt of about 7 trillion dollars.

Answer 8

Are you saying that a president is good if the economy does well during his term?
You must thing that Calvin Coolidge was the greatest President in out history.
When Clinton left we were plunging into a recession.
We were woefully unprepared bot militarily & domestically for attacks.
Our intel was a mess.

Answer 9

I think Clinton was the best president America ever had.. too bad they have bush now.. talk about the smartest and dumbest US presidents!

Answer 10

Clinton had the luxury of governing during the benefits of Reaganomics. It is a vicious cycle; Carter ruined the economy; Reagan tried his best to fix it; Bush I helped, it all came together under Clinton, who left office as the economy plunged again; and now Bush is turning it around.