WASHINGTON -- For the past two decades, Americans have been living in the shadow of the "twin towers of debt" that overhung the federal government and threatened the economic well-being of future generations: the national debt and the international balance of payments. Both grew geometrically during the past 20 years, and both were easy targets for political rhetoric.
President Bill Clinton recently released an improved estimate of the fiscal-year 1999 federal balance sheet, showing a current-year surplus of $99 billion -- up $20 billion on an earlier estimate. Even more impressive is the fact that the projected budget surpluses in the years to come (over $1 trillion more than previously expected) will pay off the entire national debt by 2015.
This represents an enormous change in the political landscape of fiscal rhetoric. The budget deficit has been a leading topic for conservative politicians, who gloomily predicted national bankruptcy and used this threat to oppose federal spending plans. Liberals were forced to explain how the world was not ending and that the modest amounts their pet programs would add to the debt would pay long-term benefits that would right the fiscal ship of state.