[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 31 (Monday, August 7, 2000)]
[Page 1770]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the National Debt

July 31, 2000

    When I came into office, the debt had quadrupled since 1980 and was 
projected to rise even further. As a result of the 1993 and 1997 budget 
agreements and tough choices every year, we have been able to turn this 
situation around. Today the Department of the Treasury is announcing 
that the United States will pay off $221 billion of debt this year--the 
largest one-year debt paydown in American history. This will be the 
third consecutive year of debt reduction, bringing the 3-year total to 
$360 billion.
    This positive news is further confirmation that we should stay on 
the path of fiscal discipline and not endanger the longest economic 
expansion in history with a series of expensive tax cuts which would 
spend every single dime of our projected surplus. The Republican tax 
plan leaves nothing for strengthening Social Security and Medicare, 
nothing for a real voluntary Medicare prescription drug benefit, and 
nothing for education. And the Republican plan would take us off the 
path of paying off the entire national debt by 2012. This is the wrong 
approach for America.