Clinton Gets in the Game

摘要

In april, as the 100 days of the house GOP's "Contract with America" came to an end, the Clinton White House thought it might finally have a chance to regain some political leverage. Polls showed that its attacks on Republicans—portraying them as enemies of the middle class determined to balance the budget on the backs of hungry schoolchildren and Medicare patients—were working. Clinton advisers said it was payback time: the Republicans, after all, were no help to the president in 1993 when he was trying to cut the deficit. So let the GOP sweat through the summer, the advisers said. When they've collapsed after trying to do too much, step in and then offer a statesmanlike alternative. But as the spring wore on, Clinton grew increasingly uncomfortable bashing GOP plans without having one of his own. On April 21 he assembled top aides in the Cabinet Room. "We don't have the option to be as irresponsible as they were [in 1993]," he said.