Clinton Presses for Drug Coverage

President Clinton renewed his offer to congressional Republicans to sign a bill to eliminate the so-called marriage penalty tax if they would pass a plan for Medicare prescription drug coverage. He accused Republicans of passing “reckless tax cuts” that serve special interests and threaten to derail his plan to wipe out the government’s debt by 2012, but said in his weekly radio address that there was still time for a bipartisan deal. Rep. J.C. Watts Jr., the House GOP conference chairman, issued a statement rejecting Clinton’s offer for a deal.