Karen Thurman: “I want to address this issue that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) keeps bringing up. Our information in numbers…”

“I want to address this issue that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) keeps bringing up. Our information in numbers is exactly the same as his, but under the Democratic substitute, when signed in law, because it will be the one signed into law, it will provide a marriage penalty relief to 43,900. And I want to also let the gentleman know, because this is a very high number for us in Florida, I want to protect the Social Security and Medicare benefits enjoyed by 188,821 recipients in my area. Just as importantly, if we take care of Medicare, if we take care of Social Security, and we pay down the debt, that same married couple will be the recipient of those programs as well in the future. But if my colleagues do not want to believe me, let us go to an outside group. In The Washington Post, dated February 3, 2000, the title of an article, 'Fattening the Marriage Bonus.' The article says, 'The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday approved a bill to ease the so-called marriage penalty. The bill, however, has little, if anything, to do with marriage.'”