They will rant and rave about not getting a bill, and Clinton will threaten to veto anything but Norwood-Dingell because anything less is not good enough. But in the end they want the issue, and the more noise they can make about Republican attempts to kill patients' rights the better for the 2000 elections. Democratic Senators Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle are already hinting that they will slow the Senate down in early 2000 if they don't get action on patients' rights. Both Clinton and the congressional Democratic leaders will keep up the pressure for a patients' rights bill because they believe it is an issue they can win on. Democrats want to see a very public Republican execution of Norwood-Dingell in conference, or a very Republican bill getting out of conference that Clinton can take the credit for vetoing.
Republicans are worried.
They know they have the votes in the conference to win the patients' rights battle, but they fret they will lose the public relations war right in the middle of an election year. There will be no such thing as being able to kill this bill quietly in conference. As a result, expect to see the Republicans force a very Republican bill through the conference and both Houses, to Clinton's desk. The Republicans will be just as eager for a Clinton veto as the Democrats. Simply, in the end, getting blamed for inaction on the popular patients' rights issue is not a risk Republicans will likely want to take.