[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 18 (Monday, May 8, 2000)]
[Pages 960-961]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the United States Treasury ``Debt Buybacks''

May 1, 2000

    Today the Department of the Treasury is announcing that the United 
States will pay off $216 billion of debt this year--the largest debt 
paydown in American history. This will be the third consecutive year of 
debt reduction, bringing the 3-year total to $355 billion.
    This important news offers yet more evidence that our strategy of 
fiscal discipline, investing in people, and opening markets abroad is 
working. The debt quadrupled in the 12 years before I came into office 
and was projected to rise still further. As a result of the 1993 and 
1997 budgets, and tough choices in each and every year, the debt is now 
$2.4 trillion lower than it was projected to be. As a result, interest 
rates are lower, leading to stronger investment and growth while saving 
money for American families.
    We should not jeopardize the longest economic expansion in history 
with risky tax cuts that threaten our fiscal discipline. We should take 
advantage of this historic opportunity to use the benefits of debt 
reduction to extend the life of Social Security and Medicare and pay off 
the entire national debt by 2013 for the first time since Andrew Jackson 
was President. Lifting the burden of debt from our children and 
grandchildren is one of the most important investments in the future we 
can make.

[[Page 961]]