General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Can you spell tone deaf? H-I-L-L-A-R-Y. Hillary Clinton: We Were 'Dead Broke' Upon Leaving WH [View all]22.9 MILLION NEW JOBS were created during President Clintons term in office, the most jobs ever created under a single administration, and 4.4 million more jobs than were created in the preceding 12 years. 91 percent (21 million) of new jobs were created in the private sector, a percentage as high as under any other President in 50 years. The economy added an average of 238,000 jobs per month, the highest under any President.
During fiscal year 2000, the government reduced its publicly held debt by $223 billion - the largest one-year debt pay down in American history. FY 2001 was the fourth consecutive year of debt reduction, bringing the four-year total to $453 billion. The public debt was $2.9 trillion lower in 2001 than was projected in 1993. Debt reduction brings real benefits for the American people because less borrowing by the federal government means lower interest rates for other borrowers. Thanks to lower interest rates, in 1999, for example, a family with a home mortgage of $100,000 paid roughly $2,000 per year less in mortgage payments, as well as reduced payments on car loans and student loans. Under President Clintons plan, the U.S. was on track to eliminate the nations publicly held debt by 2012 for the first time since Andrew Jackson was President.
In 1992, the federal budget deficit was $290 billion. Thanks to the Economic Plan of 1993 and the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, by the year 2000, America had the largest ever federal surplus of $236 billion. President Clintons last four budgets marked the first four consecutive surpluses in a row in more than 70 years.
Unemployment dropped from 7.5 percent in 1992 to 4 percent in 2000, the lowest in more than three decades. The unemployment rate fell in all eight years in which President Clinton was in office. Unemployment rates for both African Americans and Hispanics fell to their lowest levels on record in 1998, then continued to decline over the next two years.
Family income rose by $7,562, or 17 percent, between 1993 and 2000, after adjusting for inflation. There were seven straight years of income growth during the Clinton years, leading to an all time high in 2000. The median income of African American families increased by a third $8,629 to a record $34,616 in 2000. Median family income among Hispanics grew by $6,868, or 24 percent, to $35,403, also an all-time high.
For the first time on record, more than 2/3 of households were homeowners. The homeownership rate reached 67.7 percent in 2000. Minority homeownership rates also reached new highs. By the end of 2000, there were almost 10 million more homeowners than there were in the beginning of 1993. In contrast, the homeownership rate fell from 65.6 percent in the first quarter of 1981 to 63.7 percent in the first quarter of 1993.
The President increased the Minimum Wage from $4.25 to $5.15 per hour, raising wages for 10 million workers.
Fifteen million additional working families received additional tax relief because of the Presidents major expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. In 2000, the EITC lifted 4.1 million people out of poverty more than twice the number lifted out of poverty by the EITC in 1993. In 2000, 26 million families benefited from the $500 per child tax credit in the Balance Budget Amendment of 1997.
Under President Clinton child poverty dropped by 28.6 percent to 16.2 percent in 2000, the lowest child poverty rate since 1978. While still far too high, the African American child poverty rate fell by a third from 46.1percent in 1993 to a new low of 31.2 percent in 2000, (data collected since 1959). The Hispanic child poverty rate also fell by close to a third between 1993 and 2000 from 40.9 percent to 28.4 percent, lower than it had been since 1979.
The poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent in 1993 to 11.3 percent in 2000, the largest seven-year drop in over 25 years (1965-1972). The poverty rate in 2000 was the lowest since 1974. The African American poverty rate was the lowest on record, and the rate for Hispanics matched its record low. The number of people living in poverty fell by 7.7 million between 1993 and 2000, 100 times more than in the Reagan Administration, when poverty declined by only 77,000.
The United States had five consecutive years of real wage growth, after declining 4.3 percent during the two prior administrations. This represented the longest consecutive increase since a period in the 1960s and early 1970s.
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