William Pryor: “It is time that we care for those who take care of us. What I am talking about here is, in the conference yesterday…”

“It is time that we care for those who take care of us. What I am talking about here is, in the conference yesterday there was a provision that was separated out that deals with our men and women not just in uniform but in combat. They are not receiving, in my view, fair treatment under this tax proposal. Let me say, I am for this middle-class tax bill. I think it is a good piece of legislation. I commend the Finance Committee. They worked very hard on this. I appreciate all of their leadership. But when it comes time for the earned-income tax credit, I need to talk about that for a second because last year, in fact it was last March, I was in the Armed Services Committee and we were talking about the various benefit packages our men and women in uniform receive and it dawned on me that I am not sure anyone in our Government is connecting all the dots. So I approached Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus and asked them to ask the GAO to do a review of military tax issues. Sure enough, the GAO found a glitch, an oversight, an unintended consequence, as they call it, in the Tax Code, where if soldiers are trying to claim an earned-income tax credit and are also receiving combat pay, they actually get penalized under the Tax Code.”