Living History by Unknown (best non fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

Bill pretending to be Arafat as they practiced a complicated maneuver that would prevent the Palestinian leader from drawing too close.

The handshake and the agreement, which seemed to offer such hope, were seen by some Israelis and Arabs as a rebuke to their political interests and religious beliefs, which later led to violence and Rabin’s tragic assassination. But on that perfect afternoon―

under bright warm sunlight that seemed to bestow God’s blessing―I hoped only for the best and determined to help in any way I could to support Israel’s courageous decision to take this risk for a lasting and secure peace.

Even as he worked on these varied and pressing issues, Bill scheduled a televised primetime address to Congress on September 22 to outline the health care plan. Following that, I was slated to testify be fore the five congressional committees that would consider health care legislation, which we hoped would be introduced in early October.

It was an ambitious September schedule, and we couldn’t afford more roadblocks. Although the bill itself was not finished, Bill, Ira and I wanted to acquaint Democratic members with it before Bill’s big speech so that they would understand the reasoning behind our decisions. But the raw numbers in the bill needed to be calculated and confirmed by budget experts, and that took several weeks longer than anticipated. Instead of circulating an unfinished document, we set up a “reading room” where Democratic staffers could look at the proposal with the understanding that the figures were likely to change.

The content of the document was leaked to news organizations, and the ensuing stories left many in Congress thinking that this draft was the final bill. Already wary of health care reform, Senator Moynihan decried the whole enterprise, saying it was based on “fantasy”

numbers.

Proponents and opponents of reform had begun organizing their own campaigns to influence the outcome. Groups representing consumers, families, workers, the elderly, children’s hospitals and pediatricians were, for the most part, lining up in favor of reform.

But business groups, particularly small business, pharmaceuticals and the insurance giants had long viewed reform as a threat. Doctors, too, objected to specific elements of the plan.

It didn’t take long to see how well organized and well financed the opposition was. In early September, the Health Insurance Association of America, a powerful interest group representing the nation’s insurance companies, launched television advertisements designed to discredit reform. The ads featured a couple at a kitchen table, reviewing their medical bills, worrying aloud that the government was going to force them to sign up for a new health care plan they didn’t want. “Things are changing and not all for the better.

The government may force us to pick from a few health care plans designed by government bureaucrats,” the announcer intoned. It was false and misleading advertising, but it was a clever scare tactic that had the desired effect.

On September 20, two days before Bill was to unveil his health care plan to Congress and the nation, he asked me to look at the speech draft he had just received from the speechwriting team. Over the years, Bill and I have always relied on each other as sounding boards. We also recruit each other as editors whenever we are working on a big speech or any important writing. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I settled into an oversize chair in one of my favorite rooms on the top floor of the White House―the Solarium―

where we often retreated to relax, play cards, watch television and feel like a regular family. Quickly thumbing through the pages of the speech, I could see that it wasn’t ready―and Bill was supposed to deliver it in just over forty-eight hours. Panic set in. I picked up the phone and asked the White House operator to call Maggie. Always calm in a storm, she glanced at the speech and quickly called a meeting of top health care advisers and speechwriters for that evening. Over bowls of nachos and guacamole, Bill and I and about a dozen staffers sat in the Solarium and tossed around themes for the speech. I suggested that health care reform was pan of the American journey, an apt metaphor because in Bill’s view, this was our generation’s chance to answer a call on behalf of future generations. We settled on the journey theme, and with a combined sense of urgency and relief, we handed a rough draft back to the speechwriters. With constant editing and rewriting from Bill, they wrestled the text into shape for Tuesday night’s appearance.

Presidents deliver special addresses to Congress from a podium in the ornate chamber of the House of Representatives. It’s a ritual-filled evening. As the President enters the hall, the sergeant-at-arms announces in a somber tone: “The President of the United States.” The audience rises, and the President greets members of both parties who, by tradition, sit on opposite sides of the aisle. He then climbs to the lectern and faces the audience.

The Vice President and the Speaker of the House sit directly behind him.

The First Lady, along with White House guests and other dignitaries, sits in a special area of the balcony, and it was a favorite Washington parlor game to guess who would be seated with her. On my right that evening was one of the nation’s leading pediatricians and one of my favorite people, Dr. T Berry Brazelton, with whom I had worked on behalf of children’s issues for about ten years. More surprising was the guest on my left, Dr. C.

Everett Koop. Dr. Koop, a pediatric surgeon by training, had been President Reagan’s Surgeon General, in charge of overseeing the nation’s Public Health Service. Bearded and bespectacled, he was a Republican and an adamant foe of abortion who had endured a vitriolic confirmation battle. Bill and I had come to admire Dr. Koop for the courageous stands he took as Surgeon General, warning Americans about the dangers of tobacco use and the spread of AIDS and crusading for immunizations, condom use, environmental health and