Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
March 5, 2000 -- Page: S2085

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, this is a very simple amendment. It will express the sense of the Senate that it is time for marriage penalty relief. Why would we have a Tax Code that says a policeman and a schoolteacher getting married owe Uncle Sam $1,400 more in taxes? In fact, that is exactly what the Internal Revenue Code does, and that is exactly what we want to change.

My amendment expresses the sense of the Senate that we will start working to relieve the marriage tax penalty, and it says we will do it before April 15 of this year.

Of course, we all know what April 15 is. It is tax day. We want people who are writing their checks to pay their taxes this year to start thinking about the penalty they pay because they are married, and we want them to know that if our bill passes and the President signs it, they will be relieved of that penalty next year.

We are saying it is time for Americans to have a fair Tax Code. This is not so much a tax cut as it is a tax correction, and it is high time we do this.

It is amazing we even have to take up a bill such as this because one would think the Tax Code would not discriminate one way or the other between people who are single and people who are married. We are trying to get the fairest return for all Americans.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 21 million married couples pay this penalty. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the penalty averages $1,400.

The bill that will be coming from the Finance Committee next week is a terrific bill. It is very simple and very clear. It doubles the standard deduction so that every married couple will have double the standard deduction than they have today. It will be totally fair. The standard deduction will be $4,400 for a single person and $8,800 for a married couple.

In addition, it doubles the brackets at the 15-percent level and the 28-percent level. That takes in the large majority of people in our country who pay taxes. In fact, in the 15-percent bracket, over 6 years, we increase the amount that can be made as a couple and still pay 15 percent from $43,000 to $52,000. So we would have $8,650, to be exact, more in the 15-percent bracket before one goes into the 28-percent bracket.

The 28-percent bracket today stops at $105,000, and we take it to $127,000, so one would still pay in the 28-percent bracket rather than going to the 31-percent bracket.

In addition to that, we take the very lowest income people who receive an earned-income tax credit and we make that credit $2,500 instead of the $2,000 it is today.

We are trying to do something for people in the lowest bracket and in the middle bracket. We think this is going to help the 21 million couples who are affected by this onerous tax disadvantage.

I had the privilege of meeting today with three couples, all of whom would have their marriage tax penalty totally eliminated if we pass the bill that will be before us next week.

We met with Kervin and Marsha Johnson. Kervin is a District of Columbia police officer. His wife is a Federal employee. They have been married 1 year. They are going to have to pay $1,000 more in taxes because they got married last year.

We also met with Eric and Ayla Hemeon. Eric is a volunteer firefighter and works for a small printing company. Ayla works for a small business. They have been married for 2 years and are going to have a wonderful event in about 1 month; they are going to have their first baby.

But, unfortunately, they are paying a marriage penalty of $1,100 that will take away from what they can do for their new baby.

We heard from a couple who have been married 25 years, Lawrence and Brendalyn Garrison. He is a corrections officer at Lorton. She is a teacher in Fairfax County. Last year, they paid $600 in a marriage tax penalty. Mrs. Garrison is clearly a schoolteacher because she said to me: If you pass this bill, do you think we could make it retroactive? Twenty-five years? I applaud her spunk. We will not be able to do that. But we can certainly give them the next 25 years with a little more relief.

What we are saying today is, we want the Senate to vote, before April 15, before people are required to have their taxes in, in order to let them think about exactly what they are paying this year; and if they are one of the 21 million couples, they can think about how much less their taxes will be next year if we pass our legislation.

So the Hutchison-Ashcroft amendment is going to say it is the sense of the Senate that we pass this simple legislation next week. I do not see how anyone could possibly oppose having the marriage tax penalty relieved from so many of the taxpayers in our country.

Congress is trying to give relief to a lot of people in our country who have been burdened with unfair taxes. This year, for instance, we have given tax breaks to small businesspeople because we know the economic engine of America is small business. We know that the taxes and regulations hurt small business the most because they have the smallest margins. They are having a hard time making ends meet. So we have given tax relief to small businesses.

This year, we have given tax relief for parents who are trying to enhance their children's education. We are trying to give tax relief to a parent who would want to buy a computer for a child, or extra books, or perhaps a tutor, or perhaps tuition, or perhaps a band uniform. All of these things enhance education. We want people to have some tax breaks to be able to do that. Senator Coverdell passed that bill earlier this year.

We have given medical savings accounts as tax relief for people who would build up a savings account for their medical expenses--tax free--as an encouragement to provide for their medical needs.

We have given relief to Social Security recipients who are 65 to 70 years of age who want to keep working but heretofore have been penalized for that right.

All of these tax cuts that we have given this year--plus the marriage penalty tax relief we will give next week--total about $136 billion over 5 years.

The budget resolution we are debating today has $150 billion in tax cuts reserved because we are committed to tax relief for hard-working families. So we are well within this budget resolution with the tax cut bills that have been passed by this Congress so far.

So far, the President has not signed any of these bills. Some of them have not gone to the President. But we hope he will sign the Social Security bill, which will be the first one on his desk, so that Social Security recipients will have the option to work if they so choose. We hope we will put the others on his desk in due order, including the marriage penalty relief.

We have passed marriage penalty relief before, but the President vetoed it last year. We are coming back. The President said: Send me these bills one at a time. That is exactly what we are doing. We are sending him marriage penalty relief by itself to see if he really is committed to tax relief for hard-working American families.

I hope we can pass this sense-of-the-Senate amendment; it will take the first step toward saying the Senate is serious about marriage penalty relief. I believe we will be able to pass this bill next week. I think we will send it to the President. I think he will have a chance to explain to the American people that he either does support marriage tax penalty relief or he does not and, if not, why.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I hope they will not support any amendments that are extraneous to this amendment because it is pretty simple and pretty clear; we are seeking the support of the Senate for marriage penalty relief. I hope we can do it.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.