Clinton Paid Down the Debt

A friend writes in with some concerns over the last post about Clinton paying down the debt-- and the crazy right wing saying he didn't.

I think you're missing the point. As an introduction, because I can't write this without bringing this up, you referring to the News Buster's contributor as Matt Shepphard the boy who was tragically beaten to death in Wyoming because he was gay is repugnant. I don't know if Noel is gay or not. Your name calling is classless even for a Democrat. Aren't you supposed to be the political correct, Big Tent party?

As you mention in your post with no links other than a graph developed by a left winger, how much did Clinton pay on the debt? He clearly didn't pay it down like he said for if he had it would have went down. I know you like to keep things simple, so is that simple enough. He might have paid some interest on the debt but he did not pay it down. The national debt rose every year under Clinton and its a pipe dream to say otherwise.

It keeps going on and on but you get the gist of it.

Yes he's a friend of mine.  We talk that way to each other all the time.  You should see us after a couple beers.

I keenly remember me stating that "[a]s you can clearly see from the charts the national debt increased under Clinton at its slowest rates in 50 years."  So my pipe dream is nonexistent.  I gladly, freely admit the national debt increased under Clinton in terms of non-adjusted real dollars.  The debt has increased every year since Eisenhower left office.  So I don't get the confusion or the concentration by Republicans on dollar amounts especially when Republicans have increased real dollar amounts at twice the rate Democrats have.

The point of contention seems to be on whether or not Clinton paid money down on the debt.  He most certainly did.  He not only paid on the interest but he also paid on the principal that helped reduce the rate of growth to 0.32% his last year in office. This resulted in an actual reduction in the national debt as a percent of GDP and after adjustment a reduction in dollar amounts as well.  Since my zfacts.com graph wasn't good enough last time I'll post another one that will show the exact same thing.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/hist07z1.xls

The data hasn't changed from the last graph.  As you can clearly see, as a percentage of GDP the national debt shrunk under Clinton.  It hadn't done that since the Democratic president before him, Jimmy Carter.  The graph also shows since the Reagan Revolution-- a time when Republicans supposedly ushered in a new era of fiscal conservancy--  not once have Republicans ever reduced the national debt.  It's also worth mentioning that Republicans increased the national debt on average since 1978 by 36.4% compared to only 4.2% by Democrats.

In reiteration, in terms of GDP, President Clinton reduced the national debt, and when you seasonally adjust for inflation, real dollar amounts also reduced between 1999 and 2000.  That clearly indicates he not only paid down the debt, but that he also shrunk it.

As far as the Shepphard comparisons go, it really sucks when someone who disagrees with you politically reduces it down to personal attacks completely made up on a whim and a fast typing keyboard doesn't it?  No apologies on my part.