"In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes."
- Benjamin Frankilin

Since I was first elected to Congress in 1994, one of my top priorities has been lowering federal taxes. I firmly believe that hard-working taxpayers know how to spend their money much better than bureaucrats in Washington.

In recent years, Congress has enacted vitally important tax relief that has to reduce the heavy tax-burden imposed upon so many individuals and businesses in Kansas. A heavy tax burden stands as an impediment to job creation and economic growth.

As part of the enacted tax relief, I was champion of the effort to see the onerous marriage tax penalty eliminated, and we achieved a great victory in this area. Almost 260,000 married couples from Kansas, who were forced to pay, on average, an additional $1,500 in taxes every year simply for being married, continue to benefit from the repeal of the marriage penalty tax. I am continuing the push to permanently repeal this unjust tax as an original cosponsor of the "Permanent Marriage Penalty Relief Act" (S.181).

During the next few years, it will be critical to our economic health and job market for Congress to make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent. Failure to do so would result in a $1 trillion dollar tax increase on hard-working taxpayers and their families.

In addition, I will continue to support measures such as the Child Tax Credit, permanent repeal of the death tax and a repeal of President Clinton's 1993 tax increase that led to the double-taxation on 85-percent of senior's Social Security benefits. I will remain an advocate for tax relief, which will benefit hard-working families and strengthen our economy strong.