Roughly 4,000 pages of previously secret documents from the Clinton administration were made public today by the Clinton Presidential Library. The new files show how the Clinton White House merged government and political data in the drive for a health-care plan that was doomed to fail.

Making Lists

"We are in the process of developing a detailed House list as well," Ricchetti and Jennings wrote. "We have begun a file on every member. The files, which can be cross-tabulated, include a wide array of information on the members," they said. "Added to these files will be information and research being obtained by the DNC and Intergovernmental Affairs."

An unattributed draft strategy memo shows the fears that White House officials had in the early days of the health-care overhaul push.

"There is great concern that CBO is going to screw us on savings, etc.," the anonymous author wrote, referring to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Then-Speaker Tom Foley's poor relationships with fellow Democrats were considered to be a problem, as were the politics of abortion in the House and Senate, particularly on the House Rules Committee.

Wooing Corporations

White House officials anticipated that major corporations would push back on an employer mandate and recommended that Hillary Clinton meet directly with a group of chief executives, according to a memo from Linda Bergthold, the co-chair of the task force's Benefits Working Group, to Molly Brostrom, a special assistant on the White House health-care task force.

"I think a meeting between Mrs. Clinton and some key CEOs of a variety of large corporations would be helpful at this point," Bergthold wrote on March 22, 1993. "I would suggest that before we make our employer mandate and participation issues final, we listen to the concerns of CEOs from a variety of corporations who purchase not provide health care."

Among the suggested companies: Bank of America Corp., PepsiCo Inc., Xerox Corp., Apple Inc., Alcoa Inc., Caterpillar Inc., and Federal Express Corp.

The two-decade-old memos hold the potential for political embarrassment for the Clintons and for President Barack Obama. In the case of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who led the 2016 Democratic presidential primary field by 61 points in an ABC- Washington Post poll released last month, the files show how they and their aides developed strategy for convincing skeptical members of Congress and the public that their health-care plan should become law.

Obama Administration

Ricchetti is currently Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff. Jennings, who offered blunt assessments of members of Congress to Hillary Clinton and others in the White House, just left the Obama administration, where he had served as top adviser on implementing the Affordable Care Act.

"He is the key to the Congressional Black Caucus," Jennings wrote of then-Representative Louis Stokes of Ohio in a note to Hillary Clinton in May 1993. "It's important that he hear from you. I am convinced, though, that such 'stroking' will pay dividends."

Some of the lawmakers on White House target lists remain in Congress, including Representative Sandy Levin of Michigan.

"Representative Levin's appetite for meetings can never be satiated and he may be mad that we are not holding one this week," Jennings wrote. "I think a call to assure him we want to have a meeting as soon as we are ready is advisable."