LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: Within the past half hour, President Clinton has spoken up on Capitol Hill on what he and fellow Democrats hope to achieve in his final year in the White House. CNN's Kelly Wallace joins us now with more about that -- Kelly.</s>KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that right, Lou. President Clinton, along with about 100 Democratic lawmakers in Congress, unveiled their wish list for 2000. And many of the items might sound familiar. That's because many of them were included in the president's State of the Union address a few weeks ago. They include providing tax relief to low-income and middle-class working families, passing a patients' bill of rights, shoring up Social Security and Medicare, and retiring the debt by 2013. The president said, as the country experiences the longest economic expansion in history, now is the time to act.</s>WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now is the time to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and to take Social Security out to 2050, and take Medicare out for 25 years. Now. Do it now. Save Social Security and Medicare for the baby boomers retirement.</s>WALLACE: But Republicans, for their part, continue to criticize the president and Democrats for calling for increases in government spending. The GOP would like to see more of the surplus go to Americans in the form of tax relief. And today's Democratic agenda unveiling came as the House of Representatives is poised to vote on a bill that would end the marriage penalty -- the so-called marriage penalty. The White House does not support this bill. It says it's too large, and it would rather see a targeted marriage penalty going to low- and middle-class income families, but the Senate says that it will probably work on a bill that will be as large or even larger than the House bill. So clearly a big disagreement between both parties on an issue both sides would like to put forward in this election year.
President Clinton Announces Legislative Wish List for Final Year in Office