Might have been

The saddest words
Of tongue or pen
Are these four words
It might have been

Found this Money article from Jun. 28, 1999.
Clinton: Surplus could pay national debt by 2015

Of course, it probably wouldn't have worked out quite so well. But still, for comparison's sake:

[T]he budget office assumed that the Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 would expire in 2011, even though the president has said he would work to make them permanent.

Using this approach, the budget office found that the deficit, after shrinking by $33 billion in 2005 compared with its earlier estimate, would grow in each of the next 10 years by a combined total of $1.13 trillion.

The deficit would remain above $300 billon a year through 2010 and then, driven down by the expiration of the tax cuts, fall to between $50 billion and $100 billion from 2012 to 2016.

The budget office also projected the effect of more "realistic" policy assumptions, including phasing down U.S. operations in Iraq and extending the expiring tax cuts. The budget office did not do the arithmetic to show the deficits that might result, but the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities did.

The center found that annual deficits would not dip below $330 billion through 2015 and that, altogether, $4 trillion would be added to the national debt over the next 10 years.

LA Times 8/16/2005

(The LA Times link no longer works. So here's a link with the blurb.)