The surpluses were due to a republican house under Clinton. If Clinton and the democrats had gotten their way, we would never have seen any surpluses.  G.W. Bush and his first 6 years. Well at the end of Clintons last term, we had what was termed the dot.com bubble burst and experienced a minor recession. Eight months after taking office, the country experienced something called 9/11, which had a very serious impact on our economy. His first 3 budgets were in 2001, 2002 and 2003. After that, the deficits went down with the 2007 deficit being only 161 Billion. Then the democrats took control of the house in Jan. 2007. After that, the deficits climbed rapidly and the business community took the country on a ride due to very heavy investments in junk mortgages. In other words, the 2003 tax cuts worked and reduced deficits, increased receipts to the government, lowered unemployment, increased average wages and kept inflation low. All while fighting a war. That changed after Jan. 2007.