Hillary’s Expert Testimony

Little more than a week after President Clinton presented his new health care plan to Congress and the American people, the indications are that he has, if not hit a home run, gotten safely to first base. A Los Angeles Times Poll, released Thursday, shows that Americans surveyed broadly support the plan.

Much of the credit for the initial positive response goes to the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. She took on the daunting assignment of health care reform soon after the President took office. And though some were concerned over an unelected person assuming such a high-level and highly visible task, Hillary Clinton persevered.

In three days of testimony on Capitol Hill this week, she won praise from both Republicans and Democrats. More important, Mrs. Clinton helped win formal support from Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont, the first Republican to agree to co-sponsor the health care package that the White House will submit to Congress.

Her appearance before the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee made her only the third First Lady to testify before a congressional committee. On Thursday Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) pressed her on the Administration’s cost-control claims. But she did well even with the questionable part of the plan.

In recent decades, presidents’ wives have often had difficulty reconciling their desire to contribute with the narrow expectations of others as to their “proper place.” In this, Hillary Clinton shares much with Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Bird Johnson, Rosalynn Carter and others.

But for Hillary Clinton, as for all American women, the times have changed. Women’s range of choices has become far wider. Hillary Clinton’s career as a lawyer and advocate prior to her husband’s election to the Presidency is evidence of this change. Her determined leadership on health care reform is a welcome sign that these changes have at last reached the office of the First Lady as well.