Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
June 20, 2002 -- Page: S5824

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I want to talk about an amendment I am intending to propose to the armed services bill, although I understand there may be an agreement that everyone will oppose amendments that are not considered germane.

I want to talk about the amendment because I think it is very important. We now have the House making permanent the marriage tax penalty relief. We passed marriage tax penalty relief last year in our Tax Relief Act, and it was signed by the President. It would begin the process of giving marriage tax penalty relief to the 40 million couples in our country who now suffer from a marriage penalty. In fact, it is 21 million couples across the country--over 40 million people--who are taxed simply because they are married.

The Treasury Department estimates that 48 percent of married couples pay this additional tax. According to a study by the Congressional Budget Office, the average penalty paid is $1,400. Fortunately, last year we took a step in the right direction. We are in the process of a repeal of the marriage tax penalty, with a full repeal to occur in 2009. It does this by equalizing the size of the standard deduction. So if you are single and you have the standard deduction and you get married, that will just be double rather than about two-thirds of the total, as it is today.

We also increase the width of the 15-percent bracket, so that if two people in the 15-percent bracket get married or if two people in the 28-percent bracket get married, the 15-percent tax bracket will be doubled, so that you will at least have an equalization in the first tax bracket. Unfortunately, that will sunset in 2011.

Last week, the House passed a permanent repeal of the marriage tax penalty. Now it is the Senate's turn. Senator Brownback, Senator Gramm, and I would like to make the marriage tax penalty repeal permanent, just so that married couples will know what to expect not only from now until 2009 or 2011 but beyond, to eliminate forever this kind of penalty, with the standard deduction--at least in the 15-percent bracket.

Now I want to talk about how this affects military families. There are more than 725,000 members of the military who are married. That represents more than half of the Armed Forces. Of these, 79,000 are married to another member of the military. So these 40,000 ``military couples'' represent almost 6 percent of the Armed Forces.

Consider the effect of the marriage tax penalty on two people who risk their lives every day to protect us. I will show this chart because I think it is very important. A lance corporal and a private first class in the Marine Corps will pay $218 more in taxes if they marry today. An important provision of the authorization bill we are debating is military pay raises. The same lance corporal and private first class will receive a 4-percent pay raise, according to the authorization bill we are debating today. But the marriage penalty would take back 16 percent of that increase. So of the $218, 16 percent is going to go in marriage penalty taxes.

If a technical sergeant and a master sergeant in the Air Force get married, they will pay a penalty of $604. That eats up 17 percent of the pay raise we are debating today. Two Army warrant officers would pay $852 more to Uncle Sam, or 25 percent of their pay raise.

Two Navy lieutenants who marry would pay more than $1,500 in additional taxes annually, giving up 34 percent of their pay raise.

We are trying to make life better for those in our military. To give them a pay raise with this hand and on the other hand penalize 79,000 of the people who are already sacrificing to be married to someone else in the military, possibly having to be in a separate part of the world from that spouse, to ask them to endure a marriage tax penalty that would take away as much as 34 percent of the pay raise we are giving them to make their lives better because they are out there in the field protecting our freedom, which does not make sense to me.

That is why I had hoped I would be able to offer this amendment. However, it is my understanding there are now talks about taking away any nongermane amendments from this bill. I do not disagree that we want to pass the armed services bill, that we want to make sure the bill goes through. I certainly applaud that. I do, however, think that eliminating the marriage tax penalty would be a huge help for our military, particularly since we are giving them the pay raises with this bill that we hope will make life better for them.

I know there are a lot of negotiations ongoing. I hope at some point we will be able to eliminate the marriage tax penalty not only for the 40 million people who are now paying, but for our military personnel especially. We are trying to give them this better quality of life to tell them how much we respect and appreciate the job they are doing for our country.

I would like to offer this amendment. I think I am going to be kept from doing that, but I want an up-or-down vote on making the marriage tax penalty permanent so that people will not have to wonder if the year 2011 is going to give them another big marriage tax penalty.

We have spoken in Congress; the President has signed the tax relief bill. It is essential we go forward and make these tax cuts permanent so people can make plans. Whether it is the death tax, whether it is the bracket tax cuts, whether it is the adoption tax credit, whether it is marriage tax penalty relief--we had a balanced package of tax relief for all the people who pay taxes in our country.

At a time such as this, with our economy teetering--and certainly if anyone is watching the stock market and corporations and the whole skittishness of our economy, they should see that we need some stability--we need the ability to free up consumer spending by taking the money out of the Government coffers, where hard-working people are putting it, and let them keep more of the money they earn in their pocketbooks.

I hope very much I can offer this amendment--if not on this bill, certainly on a bill we will be able to pass this year. There is no reason not to make the tax cuts we have already made permanent so people know how much they are going to have to pay the Government from their hard-earned dollars. So many people are losing their jobs; so many people are having a hard time making ends meet today. I certainly want to make sure our armed services bill passes. I do not want to load it with extraneous amendments. I do not think this is extraneous. I think being able to give them pay raises they can keep is certainly something we should do for our military, but to take away 34 percent of the pay raise we are giving them in a marriage tax penalty does not make sense to me.

I certainly hope I will be able to offer this at the appropriate time. I want to make sure we are doing everything we can for the Armed Forces of our country. I hope the distinguished majority leader will allow making permanent the marriage tax penalty bill a priority for this session of Congress.