President Clinton managed to accumulate a budget surplus that he was going to use to pay down the debt and use the interest saving for social programs, such as infrastructure.
Bush promptly wasted that savings with a trillion dollar tax break , which always favors the rich .
“Reagan took the deficit from $70 billion to $175 billion. Bush 41 took it to $300 billion. Clinton got it to zero. Bush 43 took it from zero to $1.2 trillion. Obama halved it to $600 billion. Trump’s got it back to a trillion.”