`Marriage Penalty' Bill Goes Before Senate.

Byline: Mark Schwanhausser

Jul. 18--The Senate is expected to vote today on a bill designed to ease the "marriage penalty" that forces millions of couples to pay more income tax than they would if they were single.

President Clinton has indicated he would veto the bill, along with last Friday's bill to repeal the estate tax, saying they are too expensive.

But Republicans are scrambling to push both bills through the pipeline to draw Clinton's veto, giving them another populist pocketbook issue to try to capitalize on at the GOP's national convention, which opens in Philadelphia on July 31.

"The only thing that stands in the way of death tax …