"Politics of Medicare Prescription-Drug Issue".

GOP moderates hold media events at senior centers to push their party's plan. But Republican conservatives balk at anticipated costs. The National Taxpayers Union plans a conference next week to blast controls on drug prices as "bad medicine".

The White House and Congressional Democrats squeeze the GOP from the left. Senate Democratic Leader Daschle and House Leader Gephardt will soon introduce prescription-drug plans modeled on Clinton's. Democratic lawmakers want the drug costs at the top of the agenda, says a House strategist, because the topic is "the most salient one for us politically".

Vermont Rep. Sanders presses to reinstate a provision, implemented during the Bush administration but dropped during Clinton's, requiring "reasonable pricing" of drugs developed with National Institutes of Health funding.