That's not true. They took in more than they spent those years. It was a surplus. And even if you don't like the accounting methods, it's under the SAME accounting methods now that we are doing far worse.
So where'd the extra money go if it wasn't spent? The federal debt didn't go down at all from 1993 through 2000. So if the money wasn't spent and the debt didn't go down, where's the money?
| Annual Historical Debt Outstanding | |
|---|---|
| Date | Amount |
| 09/30/2000 | $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 |
| 09/30/1996 | $5,224,810,939,135.73 |
| 09/29/1995 | $4,973,982,900,709.39 |
| 09/30/1994 | $4,692,749,910,013.32 |
| 09/30/1993 | $4,411,488,883,139.38 |
| 09/30/1992 | $4,064,620,655,521.66 |
There never was a surplus, just smoke and mirrors.
Your simply wrong about that. The surplus took into account FICA tax surplus from Social Security. It was an accounting gimmick pure and simple! Here is the surplus lie in a better perspective
When will a politician in Washington have the honesty to admit that we do NOT have a REAL budget surplus? We only have the appearance of a budget surplus because of bookkeeping sleight-of-hand.
Many years ago, a decision was made to include the Social Security Trust Fund transactions within the Federal Budget. Since much more FICA tax is collected than is paid out in benefits, the positive net inflow into the Trust Fund helped offset the huge deficit in all other "accounts" in the Federal budget. This bookkeeping dishonestly helped hide the true growth of our huge national debt. It is, in fact, an "off-the-books" borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund.
There is no REAL budget surplus until all the other (non-Trust Fund) accounts no longer run a deficit. It is time to separate the Social Security Trust Fund transactions from the Federal budget and reveal the actual deficit in the Federal budget. Then we would see the REAL federal budget surplus or deficit.
It is wonderful that the current budget is finally showing an "apparent" surplus. But let’s not lie to ourselves. It is not a REAL surplus. The politicians should not buy votes by offering a tax reduction that will drastically increase the REAL deficit and the REAL debt that we pass on to our grandchildren. Neither should the politicians squander the apparent surplus on "pork barrel spending" with the same result.
Even if there were a REAL surplus, it should be used to repay the "off-the-books" borrowing before we allow politicians to use it to buy votes. When we finally repay all that "off-the-books" borrowing, we have to get to work on our National Debt. Do we really want to pass this huge burden on to our grandchildren?
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Prof. James T. LaTourrette
2 Candlewood Ct.
Huntington, NY 11743-1827
516-271-6763latour@rama.poly.edu
http://rama.poly.edu/~latour
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Professor LaTourrette is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Computer and Information Science at Polytechnic University. He retired in 1993 after a long career in industry and academia. (The views expressed are his own. The affiliation is mentioned only for identification purposes.)