Now that we have single-party Republican rule, everything has been fixed:

(from a 5/17/00 posting):

"In the meantime, back to that national debt. Do you recall that there is a National Debt Clock? Yes, for more than a decade, a green electronic sign has flashed in Time's Square in New York, chronicling the growth of the national debt. But they're going to stop that clock. Today, they concede the numbers barely budge-in fact, the numbers are going backward because of the surpluses and the Treasury's buy-back of long-term bonds! The date set for turning off the National Debt Clock and taking it down is September 7th; the fellow who originally came up with the idea (September 7th is his birthday) chose the "arbitrary" date. The significance here is that the people who have paid for this sign for more than a decade realize it is no longer necessary."

http://www.jobconnection.net/common/article53.html

And now:

"The most famous debt clock, located in Times Square in New York City, was created by eccentric estate mogul Seymour Durst. The clock is now owned by his son Douglas Durst. Durst's clock was deactivated in 2000 when the debt began to decrease. However, following large increases, the clock was reactivated a few years later, though had to be moved to make way for One Bryant Park. (Interestingly, some "man on the street" interviews showed that some people felt that the sign's deactivation meant that the debt had been eliminated, though it remained at roughly $5 trillion.) According to Durst the National debt is now increasing at such a rate that his clock will be obsolete (for lack of digits) when the debt reaches the $10 trillion mark, expected in the next two years."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._public_debt