Why did the federal debt increase under Clinton?

Question

I know this is an odd question, since we all think of the Clinton years as a time where the economy was great. But apparently, because of social programs or something, the debt went up during Clinton's first term. This is a question for my history homework...and I'm stumped. I didn't even know that the debt ever increased under Clinton. If you know the answer, please be specific.

Answer 1

When Clinton left office,we had a record surplus of 400 billion dollars.In less than six years george bush had put us in debt to the tune of 8 trillion dollars.

Answer 2

Here's a funny piece of Howdy dooooooo.... using Yahoo search engine, type in National Debt--Clinton Presidency and you get TONS of information--HOWEVER, every piece says that under Clinton the national Debt actually DECREASED and that during his administration, $360 BILLION of this debt was actually PAID OFF!!!! there are SCADS of reports from many different sources, HIGHLY well known political figures and economists, etc and each PRAISED the Clinton Administration for LOWERING the National Debt.......Best get on this thing and do some research because whomever is TEACHING you these things as FACTS hasn't got his or HER facts straight to begin with....National debts go up and down CONSTANTLY-----I think the question you were asked to investigate for homework is a TOTALLY biased question without ALL of the facts stated....(probably your teacher's fault)....the national debt has increased WAY more EVERY SINGLE YEAR under the UNCLE GEORGE reign of terror...look his stats up as well.!!! It's Ok to argue an opposing theory, as long as you have the FACTS to back you up.... and I just don't feel whoever assigned you that history homework has all the facts straight....

Answer 3

the only reason the economy was doing so well under Clinton's rule is because he was enjoying the economic fruits of the Reagan and Bush, Sr. years. Actually, the economy is doing better now than it was during Clinton's administration. It's just that the media, being largely democrat, doesn't like to admit that a republican is doing well on anything.

Now as for the reason why the debt went up, he started a lot of socialist programs, such as health care for everyone and more government jobs. There wasn't always money in the budget for these add-ons, so he went into debt. That's usually the basic pattern: Democrats take from the poor and give to the poorer, thus crippling our society's cash flow, the economy just starts to turn bad because of this problem and a Republican goes into office and fixes the situation by encouraging businesses to grow and keeping the government small. The economy starts getting better, then the Democrats take over again.

Answer 4

Honestly I don't know the answer to your question; sorry. My best guess is that your History teacher/professor is a huge Republican and is trying to make people think badly of Democrats. I know if a Democrat gets elected next Presidential election (s)he is probably going to have to raise taxes and the like to start to undo the mess George W. Bush is creating with his war for oil.

Answer 5

The deficit - or surplus + is the change in the debt.
Year deficit/surplus in millions of $
Bush
1989-10-01 -221036
1990-10-01 -269238
1991-10-01 -290321
1992-10-01 -255051
Clinton years
1993-10-01 -203186
1994-10-01 -163952
1995-10-01 -107431
1996-10-01 -21884
1997-10-01 69270
1998-10-01 125610
1999-10-01 236241
2000-10-01 128236
Bush years
2001-10-01 -157758
2002-10-01 -377585
2003-10-01 -412727
2004-10-01 -318346
2005-10-01 -248181

Answer 6

UK`) I Suppose YOU`paid`the BILL`