HEALTH CARE . . . THE WHITE HOUSE FLAILS BACK

President and Mrs. Clinton made a last stand of sorts against mounting speculation in Congress and the press that their health-care reform proposal is dead in the water. "I refuse to declare defeat," the President told the Business Roundtable, an influential group of business executives who abandoned his idea earlier this year. The First Lady, speaking to various labor and seniors' groups, admitted that health care was "at risk," but said universal coverage was still nonnegotiable. Key congressional leaders were less adamant. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan said only that he was committed to health care as a "national goal." "It's looking bad," says TIME Washington correspondent Dick Thompson. "I think that for the first time the White House is beginning to entertain the idea that it just may not happen."