PATIENTS’ RIGHTS: White House, Republicans Deny Deal
According to two senior advisers, President Clinton has consented to $350 billion of Republican tax cuts over the next five years in exchange for passage of a patients' bill of rights, the Bloomberg News/Washington Times reports. White House spokesperson Jim Kennedy denied the deal, however, saying that he had "no reason to believe that report is true."
Doubtful Deal
According to Republican leaders, such a compromise remains heavily in doubt. "We do not want to create a new tidal wave of lawsuits that drive up insurance premiums for everybody and we're not going to be blackmailed into that by any tradeoffs," Michele Davis, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), said. Although both the White House and Republican leaders deny a deal is in the works, Clinton will hold a meeting next week with House and Senate negotiators to urge them to move patients' bill of rights legislation forward. "The concept of a tradeoff of tax cuts for action on the patients' rights or the drug benefit is a scenario that I think is a very real one," industry analyst Ira Loss, said (Cain, 5/5).