(6 of 8)
Yet it was "policy-wonk heaven," said Bergthold, who noted that years of health-care ideas were being dusted off and hotly debated. And the details came together. Benefits moved fast: at a Saturday-morning session in the Roosevelt Room, a jogging suit-clad Clinton ordered Magaziner to come up with a standard benefits package as good as or better than that of the typical worker, which meant the plan had to emphasize preventive care, including physicals and baby checkups, and some controversial procedures like abortion. But it would exclude cosmetic surgery, eyeglasses and borderline therapies, such as weight reduction. The mix was critical: too skimpy a package would anger the middle class; too rich a proposal would spark charges of a giveaway.
Meanwhile, Magaziner was making enemies on Capitol Hill, where he was regarded as a political klutz who did more to damage the Clinton case than to help it. At one meeting with Republicans on legislative strategy, Magaziner dismissed such talk as "minutiae." The First Lady was dispatched to the Hill to soothe bruised egos and keep liberals on board. Working closely with West Virginia Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller, Mrs. Clinton would often consult with a dozen lawmakers in person and via telephone. She probed for weak spots in support and likely criticism, but gave nothing away. Leaders of both parties came to sense that if Hillary Clinton had the authority to negotiate, she was reluctant to use it. Her mission instead, they concluded, was to proselytize, spread goodwill and encourage the partisans of competing approaches to stay loose. Their hunch was right: though she traveled widely to keep her husband's promise of reform alive while he was distracted with the budget, she kept her distance from the day-to-day decision making. After her father had a stroke in March, she withdrew from the task force for a month.
By early June, Magaziner's plan was largely complete, except for wrangling about the financing. But Clinton's agenda was threatened by his declining fortunes: the first 100 days were a near disaster. His popularity had dropped in the wake of continuing self-inflicted mistakes; his party had handed him several big defeats and was approving his budget plan in part to keep his presidency from faltering completely. Longtime aides watched in tight-lipped frustration as Clinton brought in Reagan White House veteran David Gergen to beef up his personal staff. With Congress resistant to more taxes, some in Clinton's Cabinet quietly put out the word that health care should be postponed -- perhaps indefinitely.
Clinton wouldn't go that far. Aides let it be known that the issue would wait until July, well, maybe September. That gave Magaziner three more months to crunch numbers. It gave skeptics from Lloyd Bentsen's Treasury Department and Laura Tyson's Council of Economic Advisers time to gather ammunition to scale back the proposal. Clinton wavered, but not for long; he still wanted to introduce it in the fall.
WHEELING AND DEALING