One thing almost everyone in D.C. deliberately misunderstands is how big of a benefit we got out of the gradually lowering interest rates since 1983, and how that is completely gone now. We are at the bottom of the rate curve, and have nowhere to go but up. Yet democrats think that because Obama is in power, he needs a turn to increase the debt, because Reagan and Bush did. But it isn't about fairness and whose turn it is. It is about doing the appropriate thing at the time. Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush could run up the debt and then refinance it later with a lower interest rate. When Obama does it, we will refinance it with higher rates, like an exploding adjustable rate mortgage. The best thing Obama could do would be to reverse what Clinton did. Clinton change the mix of bond maturities to focus on short term bonds with lower interest rates. Obama should change the mix to favor long term bonds, and at least lock in lower rates as much as he can in a rising environment. But he won't, because it is his "turn."
Please. Show me where Clinton did that. I'd sooner think it was Greenspan.
I realize you're probably speaking loosely about what happened during his administration, but I hate to give the old slime-ball credit for it.