I’m here to blow a hole in the myth that Clinton created an amazing budget surplus that Bush squandered and turned into a huge deficit. The above chart shows the deficit/surplus since 1980, pay no attention to Obama’s first year. I’ve talked enough about his budget deficit recently.
The following is a chart of the Nasdaq from 1990 until now:
At the end of Clinton’s term ONE THIRD of ALL revenue came from capital gains taxes. This is pretty astounding. I’m certainly not giving Bush a pass, he raised spending a huge amount and that is the biggest thing that annoyed me about his Presidency. That being said he was not blessed with the same environment Clinton had to work with. There were no capital gains tax revenues, only losses. The tech bubble and subsequent bust was the cause of Clinton’s surplus and Bush’s initial deficit.
Clinton gets far too much credit for something he had no control over, and in the long run was very bad for our economy. Let me know what you think in the comments below.