[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          WHEN PR GOES TOO FAR

  (Mr. GOSS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, even as the Democrat leaders in Congress are 
running from the President's health care and cranking out their own 
plans, the White House PR Machine is in overdrive. Last week the 
Washington Post front page reported on health care news from the 
President's recent carefully orchestrated swing to Connecticut. The 
report had more to do with press attention than it did with health 
care: 65 articles, 10 local newscasts, 6 radio broadcasts and repeated 
network coverage, a pretty good take for a few hours of the President's 
time and tens of thousands of the taxpayers' dollars, and conclusive 
evidence that the White House spin doctors care more about press 
coverage than health care coverage.
  The White House road show is going everywhere, Colorado, Florida, and 
onward in a similar PR boost, but how much is too much?
  The White House is too busy reading its own press clips to hear what 
the American people are saying. They are saying that Government-run 
health care is bad news. It does not work, and they want something 
else.
  Let us go to work on H.R. 3080. It is good medicine, and it is 
medicine we can swallow.

                          ____________________