Jon Kyl: “I do that in order to strongly support the amendment of the Senator from Texas calling for the repeal of the Clinton tax…”

“I do that in order to strongly support the amendment of the Senator from Texas calling for the repeal of the Clinton tax increase on Social Security benefits. He spoke of this about an hour ago. It is a measure that I had offered in the House of Representatives within hours of the time, on August 6, 1993, that the Social Security tax increase cleared the Senate. I had offered the bill there to repeal it. I also supported Senator Lott's bill to repeal the tax, which he called the Senior Citizens Tax Fairness Act. And I am very pleased to stand in support of the amendment of the Senator from Texas to do the same. This is the tax increase that President Clinton pushed through the Congress in 1993 to impose higher taxes on seniors with incomes of only $34,000 a year and couples with annual incomes of $44,000 a year. The Clinton administration talked about taxing the rich, but we did not believe that couples making $44,000, or individuals making $34,000 a year, should be considered rich. As a result of the Clinton tax increase, 85 percent of these people's Social Security benefits are now subject to tax. That represents an effective tax increase of 70 percent over prior law. The CBO estimated that, in 1994, 9.5 million Social Security beneficiaries were hit by the Clinton tax increase. That is a figure, of course, that will rise every year--to roughly 13.5 million in 1998, and much more each year thereafter--because the tax is not indexed for inflation.”