But others have a different worry: that the Clinton Administration will merely tinker with an organization many wanted eliminated as a political force.

Others agree that merely tinkering with formulas set a dozen years ago makes no sense.

The station started in the 1950s by a handful of students who were merely tinkering with random parts.

Unfortunately it seems that it has been the agricultural ministry which has won the debate, and Britain is merely tinkering with the problem.

In the next few weeks Congress will decide whether it will overhaul or merely tinker with health care.

Federal spending, in short, is already so big (and fixed) relative to either man's aspirations that even their boldest proposals merely tinker at the margins.

Merely tinkering with existing rules, he goes on, is absurd, given the serious illness of the patient.

"Merely tinkering at the edges of policy on early care and education" is not enough, she says.

In essence, however, that is merely tinkering with the symptoms.

Laudable as the proposed changes are, in many ways they are merely tinkering around the edges.