You seem to be confused as to what a balanced budget is. Not surprising. A balanced budget, particularly a government budget, has revenues equal to expenditures. Hopefully it’s a budget with no deficits,if you keep your fingers crossed has a surplus.
In 1999 Revenues were (1,827.5), outlays were (1,701.8), on budget (1.9) Social Security (124.7) Postal Service (-1.0 ) total (125.6 )
In 2000 Revenues were (2,025.2)outlays were (1,789.0)on budget(86.4)Social Security (151.8) Postal Service (-2.0) total (236.2)
In 2001 Revenues were(1,991.1)outlays were (1,862.8)on budget(-32.4)Social Security (163.0) Postal Service (-2.3)total (128.2)
This all had two things in common going back to 1972, and more than likely as far as social security being added to the pot,going back further. Like I said SS is part of the national budget and they all had this in common= Debt Held by the Public. Debt Held by the Public, in 1972 was= 322.4. Debt Held by the Public, in 2001 was= 3,319.6.
The last year for debt not held by public would be when Andrew Jackson was the Pres. 1836 . Actually paying off debt for a government is not a good thing, that’s a subject for another thread.:2wave:
CBO | Historical Budget Data