"He also ran a budget surplus.

Do you remember that?"

I rememeber a projected surplus, but by the time they became "real" we were already sliding in a recession*- things are hitting the fan with the tech stocks, people were "rethinking" the idea that "maybe this time things would be magically different". People were looking at the effects over in Japan and going "oops, I guess we are in a bubble". The Question was no longer how high would stocks go, but would it maintain with slow upward trend, or crash through the floor. The Fed of course was way ahead of this, and prevented a Japanese bubble which is still hurting them and could for another decade.

Clinton did cut taxes and he did do welfare reform, but remember it is the Congress which really doesn't these things. It requires a determined congress and strong leadership from the WH to get the important stuff done.

* Also as soon as it looked like we were going to balance the budget, the congressional urge to spend was getting the upper hand- there was even a worry of having a surplus & and they were heading into an election cycle- which meant if they could get credit for cutting the budget and spend like crazy- they could have their cake and eat it too.