Why did the USA pay back its war debts from WW2, but the national debt increased every year under Bill Clinton?

Because every European country owed us money plus the all goods were being sold to Europe so they could rebuild. Clinton is a liberal and liberals only know how to spend and raise taxes to spend more

The payback (with interest) from the war debts went to the same people who collect the interest on the national debt.

But at least Clinton was good for laughs.

The US was able to pay back its debts after WWII because the top income tax bracket during the Truman years was 90%.

Because Clinton was unable to pass a budget with enough surplus to pay the annual interest on all the public debt racked up under Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Your question has no basis in historic reality. Surpluses in the budget started appearing during Clinton's second term. He wanted to used those surpluses to start paying down the debt. However the Republicans in congress started pushing for tax cuts instead.

WRONG.

Clinton actually 'ran a surplus' some years, meaning that he did pay off

part of the debt during his administratuion.

We didn't have any war debts. People owed us money. Don't blame Clinton. At least he didn't triple the national debt like Reagan did.

Had a small government and a booming economy in the 50's. Government was huge by the 90's.

Because Bush Sr left a huge deficit!Like his son did when he left office!

To keep women quiet cost A Lot of $$$$$$$$$$.