Budget surplus expected to hit record

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Sep 28, 1999

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal budget surplus is now expected to hit a record $115 billion for the fiscal year that ends this week, President Clinton said Monday. He called the estimate "proof that we're on the right road to prosperity" and urged Congress to work with him to shore up the retirement system and invest in education.

"We can do all that and still have an affordable tax cut for the middle class and pay down our debt so that by 2015 we are debt-free for the first time since 1835, when Andrew Jackson was president," Clinton said.

The administration increased its estimate of the rapidly growing budget surplus, saying it should hit at least $115 billion in fiscal 1999, the largest in history.

The surplus is consumed by payments on the federal debt, and the estimate has no direct bearing on the wrangling over the fiscal 2000 budget. Noting that the budget deficit was $290 billion when he took office, Clinton argued that the rapidly growing budget surplus was evidence his economic vision was working. "Our nation has come a long way in a short time," he said.

Earlier this year, the administration had estimated the surplus for fiscal 1999 -- which ends Thursday -- at $99 billion, but the booming economy and larger-than-expected tax revenues pushed the figure higher. The $115 billion figure would far surpass the record $69 billion surplus last year. In July, the Congressional Budget Office predicted a $120 billion surplus.

Even after adjusting for inflation, the administration figure still represents the largest surplus in American history, the administration said. The 1999 surplus would be about 1.3 percent of the gross domestic product, the largest on this basis since 1951.