Getting It Done How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform

Senator Tom Daschle's narrative of what went on behind the scenes in the making of the new health care legislation delivers a powerful lesson in the workings of American politics.The evolution of health care reform was drawn-out, frustrating, and complicated, but Senator Tom Daschle is the ideal person to recount the process. His account will guide you through the entire story, from the earliest presidential campaign debates -- and his firsthand experiences in the Obama team -- through the battles on Capitol Hill to solve our most serious health care problems. Not simply a book about policy, Daschle's narrative describes in vivid detail how fragile the support in Congress was at every step of the way, as well as the frantic efforts to design a rescue strategy before time ran out. Combining his insights as a health care expert and his political expertise, this is the inside story about how the new legislation came together: from the persistence of President Obama to the subsequent efforts--and counter efforts--within the Senate and the House. In Daschle's hands, this becomes a dramatic personal story and a remarkable lesson in politics at the highest level.

TOM DASCHLE is a former U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota. He is currently a Senior Policy Advisor to the law firm of DLA Piper and a member of DLA Piper's Global Board.  Daschle is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a co-founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington DC, and the author of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.  He is on the board of directors for the National Democratic Institute, a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Daschle is married to Linda Hall Daschle and has three children and four grandchildren. DAVID NATHER spent nearly a decade reporting on the politics of Congress and the White House as a senior writer for Congressional Quarterly. He has also covered health care policy in Congress for the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., and lives with his family in Silver Spring, MD.