Clinton’s Legacy 853January that “there is absolutely no sex of any kind,”
Clinton said that the statement was not untrue
because “it depends on what the meaning of the
word ‘is’ is.”
Clinton’s testimony infuriated Starr, who made
public Lewinsky’s humiliatingly detailed testimony and
announced that Clinton’s deceptive testimony war-
ranted consideration by the House of Representatives
for impeachment.
But throughout Clinton’s legal battles, opinion
polls indicated that two in three Americans approved
of his performance as president. Buoyed by the
vibrant economy, most Americans blamed the scandal
on the intrusive Starr nearly as much as the evasive
Clinton. The November election proved disastrous
for the Republicans, who nearly lost their majority in
the House.
Clinton’s troubles, however, were by no means
over. Republican leaders in the House impeached
Clinton on the grounds that he had committed per-
jury and had obstructed justice by inducing Lewinsky
and others to give false testimony in the Jones case.
The vote closely followed party lines.
The impeachment trial in the Senate began in
January 1999. Chief Justice William Rehnquist
presided. The Republicans numbered fifty-five,
enough to control the proceedings but twelve short
of the two-thirds necessary to convict the president
and remove him from office. Democrats, while pub-
licly critical of Clinton’s behavior, maintained that his
indiscretions did not constitute “high crimes and mis-
demeanors” as specified in the Constitution for
removal from office. They prevailed. The article
accusing Clinton of perjury was defeated by a vote of
fifty-five to forty-five; on the article alleging obstruc-
tion of justice, the vote was fifty to fifty. Clinton
remained president.Bill Clinton, Answers to the Articles of
Impeachmentatwww.myhistorylab.comClinton’s Legacy
One reason why Clinton survived was the health of
the economy. Few wanted to rock the ship of state
when it was stuffed with cash. Until the final months,
the Clinton years coincided with the longest eco-
nomic boom in the nation’s history. Clinton deserves
considerable credit for the remarkable prosperity of
the era. His reducing the federal deficit drove interest
rates down, spurring investment and economic
growth. By August 1998 unemployment had fallen to
4.5 percent, the lowest level since the 1960s; inflation
had eased to a minuscule 1 percent, the lowest level
since the 1950s. In 1998 the federal government
operated at its first surplus since 1969. In the 2000
fiscal year, the surplus hit $237 billion.
Clinton also supported globalization of the
economy. He successfully promoted the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to
reduce tariff barriers; Congress approved NAFTA in- During the last half of the 1990s, the United
States led all industrial nations in the rate of growth
of its real gross domestic product. But the new
global economy harmed many. Some union leaders
bitterly asked how their members could compete
ReadtheDocumentA seemingly anonymous well-wisher from the crowd greets President Bill Clinton. When Clinton was later
investigated for having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern, this photograph of the
two surfaced. Clinton’s lack of discretion struck many as self-destructive.