The US hasn't had a real balanced budget in much longer than that. During the Clinton era the balance was achieved in part by stealing from Social Security by keeping the surplus inflows and pretending there's a magic locked Social Security box with trillions of dollars in it (which are really IOUs backed by the Fed's ability to debase the future for past over-spending). We similarly treated as 'surplus' tax revenue that should have been set aside for future higher Medicare costs (which back then we knew full well were coming) and is now burning a massive hole in the present budget.

The Clinton years were the twilight of the fantasy of abusing inbound entitlement tax flows for spending in the present and ignoring the future. That government spending party trick - kicking the can down the road - is now exhausted on a normalized basis, so we're rapidly heading toward perma QE as the only solution remaining other than very high taxation across all major income groups.