Jim Bunning: “I am pleased the other side apparently agrees with me that these taxes need to be repealed. However, only one amendment…”

“I am pleased the other side apparently agrees with me that these taxes need to be repealed. However, only one amendment which we will be voting on today actually does that, and that is my amendment. My amendment, the Bunning amendment, would actually repeal the unfair tax on senior citizens and provide relief. The amendment proposed by my good friend, Senator Baucus, would not actually do anything. It is simply a sense of the Senate. This issue is fairly simple. When the Social Security program was created, benefits were not taxed at all. However, since then, Congress twice has added taxes on these benefits for supposedly wealthy seniors. In 1993, a tax was placed on 85 percent of seniors' Social Security benefits if their income was above $34,000, if they were single, or $44,000 for a couple. Those are wealthy seniors. These numbers aren't indexed to inflation. So what has happened is more and more senior citizens are affected by them each year. My amendment is fairly simple. It repeals the tax starting in 2008. Seniors would not have to pay this additional tax.”