A 'Bumfuzzling' Budget?

President Clinton and Congress are still in a standoff over the budget this weekend, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller.

On Friday, the president had to sign yet another temporary spending bill to keep big chunks of the federal government from shutting down. But this week, the president was trumpeting what he portrayed as a historic achievement.

"It is now official, and I'm proud to announce, that we posted a budget surplus of $123 billion, the largest surplus in American history," he said.

The president would have us believe that never before has the federal government been awash in so much black ink.

"According to today's report, America's debt is now $1.7 trillion, lower than it was projected to be when I took office," he said.

However, the national debt may be lower than what was projected, but our reality check shows that the national debt has never been larger.

In fact, on the day the president made his announcement it stood at $5,678,661,795,378.98.

But how can the debt be larger than ever when it's being paid off?

"We have paid down our nation's debt by $140 billion," Mr. Clinton said.

But that's not what the latest figures show.

Over the last 12 months, the debt has increased $119 billion. What the president is talking about when he says "we have paid down our nation's debt" is the part of the national debt held by the public - the publicly-owned T-bills and treasury bonds. That is down by $88 billion.

However, the other part of the national debt, which includes money one part of the government borrows from another, is way up, about 28 billion over the past year. That includes the $123 billion surplus, the president is talking about.

It's all Social Security revenue, but under the law, that cash can't sit around. So the Social Security Trust Fund uses it to buy U.S. government notes. That's money the government owes to itself but is increasing the national debt.

Confused? The president has a word for it.

"I can imagine the American people must be totally bumfuzzled," he said.

Whether it means confused or befuddled, the president's use of that word left his official stenographers bumfuzzled. They couldn't find it in any dictionary and had to guess as to how to spell it in the official presidential transcript. A Clinton aide said the word was an Arkansas expression.