Chuck Grassley: “First of all, I think there is a very general proposition about the Tax Code. I want to relate it to the philosophy of…”

“First of all, I think there is a very general proposition about the Tax Code. I want to relate it to the philosophy of higher taxation on the part of the Democratic Party members; and that is, that the higher the marginal tax rate, the worse the marriage tax penalty is. We have in 1990 the drive for increasing taxes by Senator Mitchell when he was majority leader. That increased marginal tax rates at that particular time. Then we have had the highest tax increase in the history of the country, which was the one that was passed within 7 months after the Clinton administration was sworn in in 1993, in which we still had two higher brackets put into the Tax Code. Remember, that tax increase passed with 49 Democrats for it, and all Republicans and a few Democrats against it. It passed by Vice President Gore breaking the tie. Remember that we have a much worse tax penalty now than we did under the tax policies of the 1980s, when we had two brackets, 15 and 28 percent. The extent to which the marriage tax penalty is worse now than before is a direct result of higher marginal tax rates promoted by the other side of the aisle.”