The Bill: How The Adventures of Clinton's National Service Bill Reveal What Is Corrup - Hardcover

Waldman, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670853003 ISBN 13: 9780670853007

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1995

Synopsis

A Newsweek correspondent provides an eye-opening look at the inner workings of Washington, exploring efforts to define and create Clinton's National Service Bill and showing what happens when good ideas collide with Washington bureacracy. 25,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo.

About this title

From Library Journal:

Despite the pretentious claims made by the title, this is a fine and accessible case study of the legislative process. Journalist Waldman was given the opportunity by his employer, Newsweek, to cover one of Clinton's legislative proposals from campaign idea to signature by the president. He had access to key White House staff and their meetings as well as to those significant members of Congress and their staffs who shepherded the bill through the legislative labyrinth. While Waldman has a somewhat cynical view of the political process that produced the National Service Act, he possesses fine political insight that allows the reader to understand the advantages and disadvantages of compromises in order to achieve one's goals in Washington. Besides making the reader aware of the roles of competing interest groups, the media, congressional representatives, and legislative and executive staffers in shaping the bill, he illuminates Clinton's motivation and political instinct. This contemporary version of Eric Redman's Dance of Legislation (1973) is highly recommended for popular political science collections.
Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

With vigorous lobbying from interest groups impeding, passage of the National and Community Service Act of 1993 was a near thing, according to Waldman, the national correspondent for Newsweek, in this instructive, cautionary report that will leave readers marveling that any legislation moves out of committee to a House vote. Bills meant to marshall the best instincts of the populace can bring about the opposite, the author shows. Clinton's national service plan embraces a mix of races and income groups, a provision perceived as threatening by local service organizations, which are often racially homogeneous; veterans organizations were concerned that the financial benefits offered to national service participants would exceed their own; unions feared jobs would be taken away from their members; and financial institutions were alarmed at losing profits under student loan reform, which was linked to Clinton's proposal. Inertia was found only among the media, which largely failed to report on the conflicts, criticizes Waldman, who gives fair hearing here to national service partisans and antagonists alike-perhaps more than certain factions merit.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0670853003
• ISBN 13: 9780670853007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320