Confidence votes 204. Dwight Eisenhower was last Republican President to preside over a balanced budget. He had a balanced budget in 1956 and 1957. Since then, there have been two presidents to preside over balanced budgets, LBJ in 1969 and Clinton in 1998 through 2001.During the last 40 years there have been five budget surpluses, all five were under Democratic Presidents: 1969, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.hus the balanced budget of 1969 was due to LBJ's budget even though Nixon was president for most of the year. Eisenhower actually also balanced it in 1960. Before him there were three years after WWII b/c the war spending had stopped but the taxes and war controls were still in place.