WASHINGTON -- Before President Clinton made his headline-grabbing speech on health care reform, a small group of reporters interviewed a trio of White House officials on the same subject.
The officials gave no hint that the chief executive was about to signal a willingness to compromise on universal coverage and employer mandates, his two major requirements of any reform package.
Instead, they sent a tough message to members of Congress: Avoid reforming the health care system according to the President's blueprint and you will run the risk of losing your reelection battles in November.
"We think Congress is not prepared to go home and stand for election unless they have taken serious action on reform," White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes told the reporters gathered around a table in the Roosevelt Room, in the White House's west wing.
"What this debate is coming down to is, 'Are you in favor of some partial solution which we think leaves the middle class out in the cold, leaves them in the status quo, and will do nothing for them, or are you for serious change that is going to build on this system, keep what's fight, and fix what's wrong?'" Ickes asked.
"That's where this debate is going. Up until now the debate has been enormously confused. But we think this debate is going to be focused now," Ickes said.
Posturing? Sure. Propaganda? Of course. But still necessary, given the battering Clinton's plan had taken in the weeks leading up to last Tuesday's speech. Four congressional committees have come up with four different health care reform bills, none of them containing exactly what the president wants.
When the legislative process began, the president said he would stay out of it for the time being and let the committees work their will. But now that the process is over, Ickes made clear that the administration will be directly involved in the upcoming effort to fashion compromise bills to take to the House and Senate floors.
Ickes and National Economic Council head Robert Rubin also outlined their plans for waging a "very public campaign," in Ickes' words, to come up with a final bill that will contain as much as possible of what Clinton wants.
Thus, part of that campaign is to get the word out to Congress that a vote against what the administration considers true reform will win few votes at election time.
But as the reporters and the rest of the world discovered Tuesday, another part of the campaign is to show a willingness to compromise, as Clinton did when he indicated he might accept a partial employer mandate and less than immediate 100% insurance coverage.
A third part of the plan, according to Rubin, is to send Clinton's top economic advisers out on the hustings. Rubin, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, Office of Management and Budget director Alice Rivlin, and Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman Laura D'Andrea Tyson all plan to get the word out via the news media that health care reform is good for the economy.
One of the reasons the administration needs to revive its sagging health care reform fortunes is Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., the Senate's top Republican. Dole has repeatedly insisted that the system does not need the radical reforms being proposed by Clinton, and that Congress would do better merely passing a smaller bill that makes some minor insurance adjustments.
Dole's less-is-more approach would presumably be very attractive to members of Congress who want to show the voters they took action on health care, but without making radical changes that could come back to haunt them.
Thus, Clinton's people are trying to convince the fainthearted in Congress that the Dole approach isn't enough.
And, even though they say the American public is already on their side, Clinton's staffers are doing a sell job on them as well. The final version of the health care reform package will show whether Ickes and company are ready for Madison Avenue.
