Title: PolitiFact | Was Andrew Jackson the only U.S. president to bring national debt to zero?
Headings: "Andrew Jackson was the last president who actually balanced the federal budget, where we had no national debt."
"Andrew Jackson was the last president who actually balanced the federal budget, where we had no national debt."
Was Andrew Jackson the only U.S. president to bring national debt to zero?
The history
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Content: Jackson was, in fact, the only president to preside over a total elimination of all remaining debt while having a balanced budget. However, this wasn’t nearly as dramatic of an accomplishment as it would be today. Experts told us to take this factoid with a grain of salt because the debt was already on its way down, and by the time Jackson took office, the amount of debt was trivial. The history
Jackson, who served from 1829-37, was an ardent supporter of keeping banks and government separated. He believed that banks would have undue influence on government, and he was hell-bent on eliminating the debt. (Jackson was also deeply skeptical of paper currency, which adds some irony to the current debate over his position on the $20 bill.) In January 1829, the debt was about $58 million. ( Jackson took office that March.) In today’s dollars, that amounts to about $1.4 billion. The total public debt outstanding today is higher by many orders of magnitude: