The Pact Between Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich to Privatize Social Security

[Divernan]

12. Thank god for Monica, who "changed everything"; saved SS & medicare!

On behalf of my fellow SS & Medicare benficiaries in every state of the union, a heartfelt thank you to Monica Lewinsky.

Clinton and Gingrich set Medicare reform on a slower track. On January 16, the president and speaker managed to convince two allies to serve as cochairs of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. Clinton friend John Breaux, a moderate Louisiana senator known for his ability to forge compromise, was appointed chairman, and Gingrich colleague Bill Thomas, powerful head of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on healthcare, agreed to serve as administrative chairman. The president and speaker charged them with producing a set of recommendations by March 1999.

By mid-January, Bowles believed everything was on track. The president and the speaker were looking forward to the annual State of the Union address, scheduled for January 27, when they would make public the plans they had carefully laid over the previous months. No one, however, was prepared for what happened next.

Breaking news. Early on Wednesday morning, January 21, Bowles (y'all remember Bowles, as in head of the Catfood Commission Bowles) arrived at his office in the White House at his usual 7 a.m. starting time. He liked to spend a few hours getting caught up on the news in preparation for his daily briefing with the president. While some White House officials had learned the previous evening that the Washington Post was running a story about the president having an illicit affair with an unnamed White House intern, Bowles learned about it for the first time when he opened the paper sitting on his desk. There across four columns at the top of the paper read the headline: ''Clinton Accused of Urging Aide to Lie; Starr Probes Whether President Told Woman to Deny Alleged Affair to Jones's Lawyers.''


When Bowles asked the president about the story that morning, Clinton denied it. ''Erskine,'' he said, ''I want you to know that this story is not true.'' Bowles was crushed by the alleged charges, which he assumed were untrue. He was also devastated that a potentially great moment had been lost. Whether true or not, he understood the political implications: All of their hard work in building the alliance with Gingrich had been destroyed. There was no doubt in his mind that Clinton and Gingrich would have created a plan for reforming both Social Security and Medicare that year and, perhaps, set the stage for a new period of bipartisanship. ''Gingrich wanted to do it; Clinton wanted to do it. It was a real missed opportunity,'' he said. ''Monica changed everything.''

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/05/29/the-pact-between-bill-clinton-and-newt-gingrich?page=3