generating 7 trillion in surplus. We were magnificently comfortable and in the black in 2000. I want my money back. Bush and Wall Street stole my money.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/06/26/clinton.budget/index.htmlClinton offers Republicans a deal on $1.9 trillion budget surplus
June 26, 2000
Web posted at: 6:12 PM EDT (2212 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton announced a $1 trillion increase in the projected federal budget surplus on Monday, and offered to use some of the windfall to cut taxes for married couples if the Republican-controlled Congress enacts White House proposals to offer a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.
How we use these surpluses in this moment of prosperity will determine America's future for decades to come. Nothing will more surely determine it than making the right choices," Clinton said during a White House ceremony Monday afternoon.
But congressional Republicans reacted cooly to the offer, suggesting that a real compromise on how to spend the record surplus would have to wait until after the November 7 election.
The White House now projects a non-Social Security surplus of $1.9 trillion over the next 10 years, more than double the February estimate. The higher figure is what private analysts have been predicting for weeks -- the benefits of an unprecedented economic boom that has produced massive amounts of new income to tax.
Clinton embraced plans for a "Medicare lockbox" advocated by Vice President Al Gore that would shield monies deposited into the federal government's Medicare trust fund from being counted in the general treasury. House lawmakers last week passed a measure to do the same by a margin of 420-2.
Clinton said White House figures still project a $1.47 trillion surplus over the next 10 years even after setting aside Medicare funds.