Roll Call - The Closers

Roll Call - The Closers

While a robust debate over health care reform takes place — in Congress and well beyond the Beltway — and leaders meet in private to hash out their differences, Roll Call has focused on several Members of Congress who will make a difference as the endgame approaches. Our list includes the obvious, such as top leaders of the House and Senate who will be in the room when any deal gets cut, along with less likely choices, who have found ways to exert influence in surprising, unorthodox ways.

Authors of a new history on health care reform battles write that President Barack Obama could learn a thing or two from one of his predecessors, Lyndon Johnson.

History Holds Lessons for Present Reform Fight

November 16, 2009

“I am not the first president to take up this cause,” President Barack Obama said to a joint session of Congress in September, “but I am determined to be the last.”
He was referring, of course, to the cause of giving all Americans health insurance coverage. If he succeeds, it will be the culmination of a long, long journey building on the successes — and failures — of practically all his recent predecessors.

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