CLEP US History II

Answer: E - One of the leading components of President Bill Clinton’s economic success was his ability to balance the federal budget in each year of his second term. The United States had not operated on a balanced federal budget since 1969. Laying the foundation for the budgetary success took virtually all of Clinton’s first term. In addition to the balanced budgets, the government ran a surplus each of those four years. The surpluses helped pay down some of the public debt, including a payment in 1998 alone of $452 billion. The Clinton-era economy also included an average annual economic growth rate of 4% (the highest growth rate in modern history), the longest period of growth in history (116 months), the greatest single-administration growth in jobs (22.5 million new positions), an increase to the average income, the lowest unemployment rates in 30 years (and the all-time lowest unemployment rates for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans), the lowest poverty rate in 30 years, and a 53% decline in the number of citizens on welfare.