This January marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The revelations of President Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern in the first month of 1998 upended the political scene and consumed the nation’s attention for the year. In retrospect, however, the scandal, while permanently blemishing his record, has been deemed immaterial to Clinton’s legacy and contemporary American history. Amid inflation and war, its occurrence can hardly be characterized as momentous. Or should it?

In August 1997, Clinton signed the Balanced Budget Act, ratifying an agreement concluded with Speaker Newt Gingrich that encompassed balanced budgets by 2002, lower spending, and tax reductions. With short-term deficits addressed and possible budget surpluses, Clinton and Gingrich were enticed by the history-changing prospect of tackling one source of long-term structural deficits: Social Security.