Clinton was the president and he set the agenda, in 1994 he passed the omnnibus balanced budget act, with no republicans voting for it, and then we get a balanced budget.
No republican has ever lowered the deficit or even had anything close to a balanced budget, all republicans know how to do is spend recklessly, blow up the deficit, spend some more, start failed wars in the mid east, and blow up the economy.
The republicans have caused the majority of our deficit problems, whereas the democrats lower the deficit, like Clinton, Obama, and Biden have all done.