What could be done with $67 Billion? That is how much interest was paid out over the first 3 months of the fiscal year. Extrapolated over the year, that's $268 Billion. There would be no need to worry about medicare or SS running out of funds. The U.S. could have top notch education for everybody. Crumbling infrastructure could be repaired.

Not only does the deficit have to be eliminated, the debt has to be paid off. It would have been if the Clinton budgets had been maintained but Bush destroyed that dream. Trillion dollar deficits can't be allowed to continue.

I just multiplied the first quarter by 4 to come up with my total. First quarter interest was over $4 Billion higher this year than last so the total may end up above your $360 Billion figure. Imagine what could be done with that instead of pissing it away to banks and foreign interests.

Official source: "Interest Expense on the Debt Outstanding"
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm
the cost of paying interest on the debt for fiscal 2012: $359,796,008,919.49

The Clinton surplus was in all accounts very real and very existing, but it was also very unsubstainable. The base revenue to the federal budget is income and payroll taxation, added to this is the other large post capital gains.

From 1997-2000 the capital gains income increased with a large amount as the stockmarket rocketed. This is something that is unlikely to happen again in the immidiate future and even if it should it is not something that a longterm budget that includes promises 40+ years from now should rely on. A budget should be structurally revenueneutral, meaning that no matter cycle promises made today should be accounting for longterm trends in demographics, growth, inflation etc. Cycles come and go and a higher than expected revenu from a boom should be seen as a bonus more than a permanent voucher to promise more, the same should go for a bust as the recently experienced as defecit from that are unlikely to soon happen again.

The Clinton surplus is in this regard welcome but would never no matter have kept going on, only cure to a federal budget is to first decide ambition and then estimate cost for this ambition. If as in my opinion it should the choice is to have the ambition to provide first class education and a credible safety net the revenue will have to match this. Going the GOP way and as far as I can understand beeing willing to pay the price of seeing a nation going poor to save the rich this includes cutting spending as much as cutting revenues.

This far democrats have unfortunately taken revenues as republicans and repulicans have spent as democrats. None of thoose paths will hold longterm, either democrats take revenue as democrats or reduce ambition. The solution is not to hope for windfall revenue or printingpresses.

Figures on government spending and debt (last six digits are eliminated). The government’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Total public debt subject to limit Feb. 12 16,454,633

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/figures-on-government-spending-and-debt/2013/02/13/0260fc34-7630-11e2-b102-948929030e64_story.html