Political Quotes

“this is a great opportunity this evening to talk about an issue that many of us have raised in this Congress over the last several years. That is an issue that really is a fundamental issue of fairness, an issue of fairness that the American people have been asking some pretty basic questions about over the last several years. I represent the south side of Chicago, the south suburbs in Cook and Will Counties, as well as bedroom communities and farm communities in Illinois. And I found, whether I was in the steel workers union hall in Hegwish or a neighborhood in Chicago or at the local legion post in Joliet or the local grain elevator in Tonica, people often ask a basic question: Is it right, is it fair that under our Tax Code that the average married working couple pays higher taxes just because they are married? They say why do the folks in Washington allow a Tax Code to be in place that tells us that if we choose to get married and work, we are going to pay more in taxes? Mr. Speaker, they are stunned when they learn that 28 million married working couples pay an average $1,400 more in higher taxes just because they are married. Clearly, the marriage tax penalty suffered by working married people is fundamentally wrong and something we should change. I am so pleased that the leadership of this House, the Speaker of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), has made reduction and elimination of the marriage tax penalty the first priority this year.”