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Comment by xmichael909 | Hacker News Reader

Bullshit on the lazy “both parties are the same” framing. Bill Clinton actually balanced the federal budget and ran a $236 billion surplus in 2000. His 1993 deficit-reduction package passed without a single Republican vote. You just keep eating up the Republican bullshit...

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Not so fast. Clinton's 1993 deficit reduction plan was a 10 year plan. It did cut, a little, but the real cuts were in years 9 and 10 - years when Clinton would be out of office, even with two terms. It was a "kick the can down the road" plan, that left the next president dealing with the real cuts.

Then Republicans took Congress in 1994 with their "Contract With America". They passed a budget that was much closer to balanced, whether Clinton wanted it or not. Eventually, as you say, that led to a surplus in 2000. (That was the first surplus since Andrew Jackson, by the way.) But Clinton by himself wasn't going to do it. He was going to play pretend. It was the Republican Congress that forced him to.

Now, if you think I'm advocating for the Republicans here, I note that Republicans don't believe in anything like a balanced budget when the president is their guy. I'm just saying that, if you're going to point to Clinton, state the record accurately.

(One detail I don't remember: Why did Clinton's 1993 deficit plan get no Republican votes? Was it because they did not want to cut the deficit? Was it because they just wanted to deny Clinton a victory? Or was it because they wanted to actually do something about the deficit, and Clinton's plan was more pretend than real?)

I agree that Republicans are probably worse on this topic, but as far as I can tell, the parties are closer to parity on this than they were in 1993. The Democratic party doesn't seem have people like Bill any more.

It's overly simplistic to say that Clinton balanced the budget. While the 1993 bill raised taxes and reduced defense spending, there would not have been a surplus without further cuts driven by Republicans in 1997.

There was also the dot-com boom, which of course wouldn't have happened without Al Gore inventing the Internet.

The mental gymnastics one must do to believe in what they write is unbelievable. The answer lies right in front and you skipped over it with grace.

The pattern is extremely clear. During my lifetime, the deficit had increased under Republican presidents and decreased under Democrats. This has held steady for decades. That’s the more important thing than the question of exactly why one of them managed to get it to zero one time.

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