Political Quotes

“I again thank my colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. McCollum), for his leadership and hard work and effort as we work to wipe out the marriage tax penalty for 25 million married working couples. Let us be frank here. Of course I am a Republican and we have been working as Republicans to wipe out the marriage tax penalty over the last several years, but I was pleased the President had a change of heart. Last year he vetoed our effort to wipe out the marriage tax penalty, and he made passing reference to it in the State of the Union speech. So there has been a change of position, because it broke the hearts of 25 million couples when he vetoed it last year. He has come up with a proposal, as we said, as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. McCollum) pointed out, that takes 10 years to phase in. So essentially 10 years from now, those who do not itemize would see their standard deduction doubled. So it barely keeps up with inflation and only provides about $210 in marriage tax relief for those couples, 9 million couples. The proposal that we are bringing to the floor tomorrow, H.R. 6, the Marriage Tax Elimination Act, has 241 cosponsors, including a dozen Democrats. We provide, as we essentially wipe out the vast majority of the marriage tax penalty, up to about $1,250 in marriage tax relief for married couples. We benefit 25 million married working couples.”