The Bill : How Legislation Really Becomes Law: A Case Study of the National Service Bill

The story itself isn't a very interesting or informative one. The author tries to end chapters with a catchy phrase that is cynical/humorous/meaningful, but they rarely come off well. Journalistic style, if you like reading a 250 page news article, then you'll love it, but if you have a hard enough time getting through the lead of a front page article in the "New York Time," then don't bother.

Steven Waldman does an excellent job of explaining the substantive issues surrounding the national service bill and its corollary, student aid reform, and showing how conflicting ideals were reconciled or submerged. The detail gets a bit tedious in the last chapter, but the book does live up to its subtitle. Johnson & Broder's "The System," about the 1994 health care reform campaign, is a longer but more exciting book along the same lines.

Great look at all the inside games that must take place for a bill to pass Congress. Who switches sides, who you can trust, who stabs whom in the back at the last moment. Any AmeriCorps member should read this to get a perspective of all that went into creating the program that you were a part of. Made me realize why things are the way they are in a program that has stived to do so much for our country and the young people in it.