Using a behind-the-scenes account of 1994's most bruising legislative battle as a case in point, two of America's political observers show how 'The System' invariably works against real and necessary change.
The authors show in detail how 'The System' has corrupted America's political institutions. They take as an example the Clinton health care reform initiative - the most ambitious call for US government action since the 1960s. Granted exclusive and unprecedented access to closed-door meetings by Bill and Hillary Clinton, Senators Bob Dole, Edward Kennedy and Newt Gingrich amongst others and using these meetings and the health care plan the authors give a blow by blow destruction of a policy that aimed to please everybody and ended by satisfying no-one due to special interstate pressure groups, party political bickering, political gamesmanship and the sheer inertia of the American 'system'.