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so they paid interest on the national debt but who is paying the principal?

We actually borrowed more money to pay the interest on our debt. America is borrowing about 40 cents of every federal dollar spent.

Nobody plans on paying the principal. Not even Clinton did this.

Actually Clinton and the GOP Congress did pay down principal on the public debt for a couple of years in the mid/late 1990s. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png

However, they still raided Social Security during this period.

Adjusting for inflation or calculating debt as a percentage of GDP allows you to say it has decreased, yes.

In either case, the number of dollars owed has not decreased under Clinton. http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/history.gif