Clintons 1993 Health-Care Strategy Show Obama Pitfalls
Hillary Clinton sought to improve the chances of passing health care legislation in 1993 by letting Congress fill in the details, according to documents made public today by the Clinton presidential library.
The legislative strategy from the first weeks of Bill Clintons presidency relied on the first lady making lawmakers and major stakeholders feel included in the development of legislation. By proposing broad outlines and ideas for a bill, while letting lawmakers know what the White House considered off limits, the administration foresaw a winning process.
Instead, the Clinton health care proposal withered. Members of Congress held it up in the committee process and interest groups complained of being excluded anyway.
The experience informed President Barack Obamas strategy when he rolled out his health care plan upon taking office in 2009 and framed her advice to the administration as the process got under way. Obama won passage with no Republican support and by pushing his version even as members of his party worried about the consequences for their re-election and the rest of the presidents agenda.
If the administration drafts a detailed bill and sends it to the Congress with a heres the bill, theres not much time, take it to the floor quick approach the bill might fail because of lawmakers feeling excluded, according to notes among the documents released today titled Discussion with Hillary Clinton and dated Jan. 28, 1993, written the White Houses top health care official, Ira Magaziner.
Trying to dictate details of the legislation would mean many Members would feel excluded from playing a role in the refinement of the bill [and] interest groups will object that their concerns, even those that are small or reasonable, have been excluded, he wrote.
Todays document release, the second of its kind this year, provides new insight into how then-first lady Hillary Clinton and top White House aides approached their attempt to pass a health care law, one that ultimately failed.
If she runs for president in 2016, Republicans are certain to use Hillary Clintons health care effort two decades ago to reinforce her ties to Obamas Affordable Care Act, which has been the centerpiece of Republican attacks on Democrats.
Last month, the Republican National Committee released a memo arguing that Hillarycare is Obamacare on steroids.
For her part, Clinton, 66, who lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to Obama and then became his first secretary of state, has been trying to put a little daylight between herself and Obamas law.
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