Speeches by Robert Dole and George J. Mitchell

Speeches by Robert Dole and George J. Mitchell, respectively the leaders of the minority Republican and majority Democratic parties in the United States Senate, will serve as examples of rhetorical situations for purposes of comparison. The speeches are both on the same subject, health care reform legislation, and both were delivered before the United States Senate on the same day, August 9, 1994. The speeches were both n response to two things--the general concern for health care reform that had been prevalent in the country for at least the previous year when President Clinton had placed the issue at the forefront of his legislative agenda, and the specific proposals that had been offered to Congress. The background of the health care debate will serve as an introduction to these two speeches offering different ideas about the debate and different views of the legislation that had been proposed.

Americans for some time have believed they are facing a crisis in health care marked by rising costs for providing health care along with an increase in the number of people who are either uninsured or under-insured. This problem was long ignored by policymakers, but within the last year or so, President Clinton put the issue in the forefront of political debate and spurred a flurry of suggestions. The administration put forward a health care plan, and the Republicans responded with a health care initiative of their own. Indeed, a number of different initiatives

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news media and by various legislators in meetings and before the media. The issue had been aired in town meetings held by President Clinton. Hillary Clinton had been the head of a task force charged with analyzing the health care system and with coming up with a proposal, and elements in the Clinton proposal had been leaked over a period of time so that the issue was kept alive. Hillary Clinton had also appeared before Congress to talk about the workings of her group and the nature of the health care issue. No legislation had yet been formally proposed or voted upon, however. The debate in the Senate was not unusual and instead was a traditional route for controversial and far-ranging proposals such as the reform of such a large part of the economy as is constituted by the health care industry. The debate was intended to bring both sides on the issue into the public spotlight, to air their differences, and to encourage the public to respond so legislators would know which proposal had public support and which did not. The two speeches under discussion were selected because they were the opening speeches on the issue and set in motion a lengthy debate. While the immediate audience for both was made up of members of the U

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