But all that may be offset by the fact the Clinton bill keeps the capital gains tax rate at 28 percent.

"Many elements of the Clinton bill are similar to pieces of previous legislation," he said.

The Clinton bill, proposed months ago, is aimed at foreign terrorist groups.

Those contributions, too, would be crimes under the Clinton bill.

But that provision died with the Clinton bill.

The health subcommittee may be the first to vote on any form of the Clinton bill.

Had the Clinton bill been introduced a year earlier, Ellwood says he believes it would have passed.

The Clinton bill defines a wide range of benefits that all health plans would offer.

And that, after all, is a pretty good description of the Clinton bill, without its mechanics.

"As it turned out, the best thing that ever happened to the Government, for this purpose, was not to have passed the Clinton bill."