As finance chair, Moynihan promised to work with Packwood on a health compromise. But after repeated needling by Clinton operatives, Moynihan is telling friends he’s tired of being “trashed” for reaching out to the GOP. Instead, Moynihan last week unveiled his own proposal, which closely mirrors Clinton’s but with higher taxes. Moynihan knows the plan has no chance of passage. But aides say he hopes to make the president realize that his plan is failing “not for Moynihan’s lack of effort, but because of its own weight.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee is turning up the beat on Congress to pass universal health coverage. This week the DNC begins airing a TV ad inviting the public to call Capitol Hill and demand “what [legislators] have … guaranteed health care.”
