Giving Peace One Last Chance

from a Tampa health-care meeting in September he suggested a consensus bill embracing these reforms. Clinton seemed receptive, provided there was agreement to take up larger reforms in 1995. “The President showed interest initially in this,” says Bilirakis. “[But] his wife has been using an all-or-nothing approach.”

When Bilirakis and Democrat Roy Rowland, with about one hundred co-signers drawn from both parties, wrote to the President to call for a consensus bill, Clinton responded: “This issue requires a comprehensive solution and should be tackled in whole if we are to be successful.” Indeed. If a consensus bill passed (Lloyd Bentsen co-sponsored one in 1992 that was squashed by Democrats interested in Big Reform), much of the steam would leave the health-care debate.

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from a Tampa health-care meeting in September he suggested a consensus bill embracing these reforms. Clinton seemed receptive, provided there was agreement to take up larger reforms in 1995. “The President showed interest initially in this,” says Bilirakis. “[But] his wife has been using an all-or-nothing approach.”

When Bilirakis and Democrat Roy Rowland, with about one hundred co-signers drawn from both parties, wrote to the President to call for a consensus bill, Clinton responded: “This issue requires a comprehensive solution and should be tackled in whole if we are to be successful.” Indeed. If a consensus bill passed (Lloyd Bentsen co-sponsored one in 1992 that was squashed by Democrats interested in Big Reform), much of the steam would leave the health-care debate.