what a great day. We have legislation before us that is all about fairness and it is legislation, I believe, that will pass with overwhelming bipartisan support. In Illinois there are 800,000 senior citizens between the ages of 65 and 70…

I rise to ask a very fundamental and basic question and that question is, is it right, is it fair that under our Tax Code 25 million married working couples on average pay $1,400 more in higher taxes just because they are married. Is it…

today's debate is all about fairness. This Congress has accomplished so much over the last 5 years, and I am proud that just in the past year we have accomplished our goal of stopping the raid on Social Security for the first time in 30…

Today is a big day. The House Committee on Ways and Means is going to act on another item on our agenda, an issue of fairness; and today, in the House Committee on Ways and Means, we are going to move forward on an item on the Republican…

this House is making progress. This past week we passed legislation to address what I consider to be the most unfair aspect of the Tax Code, the marriage tax penalty suffered by 25 million married working couples who pay $1,400 on average…

of course today is known as Valentine's Day. It is a great day for those who care for one another. It is a day of the heart. This past week we had some important action in this House of Representatives which affect 28 million married…

we have often asked over the last several years, is it right, is it fair, that under our Tax Code, 25 million married working couples on average pay $1,400 more in higher taxes just because they are married? Clearly the folks back home in…

Mr. Speaker, I would say to the previous speaker, my friend, if you vote against H.R. 6, 92,000 married people in the Twenty-ninth Congressional District of Texas will not get relief from the marriage tax penalty. One-half of them are…

the President in his proposal, his marriage tax relief essentially is 10 years from now. He phases it in over 10 years. He only does the standard deduction, which only benefits those who do not itemize. If you are a middle class working…

I want to reclaim my time and thank the gentleman from Tennessee for his leadership in helping families. He has been a tireless advocate in making the Tax Code fair. That is what it is all about. Our goal is to make the Tax Code fair for…

I look back over the last 5 years and I think of when I was first elected in Congress in 1994, what were the big issues of the day. The Democrat Congress and President Clinton had just enacted the biggest tax hike in the history of this…

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…

Like the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Riley), I have a son married here recently. Every young person who gets married now all of a sudden realizes what we are talking about is very real. And it is very unfair, as the gentleman has been…

over the last 3 years, many of us have asked a pretty fundamental and basic question, and that is, is it right, is it fair that under our Tax Code, 25 million married, working couples pay higher taxes just because they are married. In…

We double the standard deduction immediately, so for those who do not itemize, they provide immediate relief. Then we begin phasing in over a short period of time the widening of the 15 percent bracket to help those who are itemizers, such…

over the last several years many of us have asked a very fundamental question, and that is, is it right, is it fair that under our Tax Code if individuals get married they pay higher taxes than if they stay single? Is it right, is it fair…

It is just wrong that under our Tax Code 28 million married working couples pay, on average, $1,400 more in higher taxes just because they are married. Mr. Speaker, is it right that under our Tax Code that couples are punished, that they…

The marriage tax penalty is an issue that is faced by average, middle class Americans. If you pay the average marriage tax penalty, you make about $62,000 a year in combined income, between two hardworking Americans, husband and wife…

The gentleman pointed out something that is so true. That is, that this year as we work to balance the budget for the fourth year in a row, we are going to be adopting a plan that once again sets aside 100 percent of Social Security for…

Again, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for his comments, and his leadership. The gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) has been a real leader, one of the original leaders in our effort to eliminate the marriage…

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…

it is great to be back here for another session of good and hard work. I represent a pretty diverse district. I represent the south side of Chicago, the south suburbs, and Cook and Will counties, a lot of industrial as well as farm…

it is my privilege to represent one of our Nation's most diverse congressional districts. I represent the South Side of Chicago, the south suburbs in Cook and Will Counties, a lot of bedroom communities and a lot of cornfields and farm…

this is what it is all about today. We are making a choice: Government waste, or Social Security. This is what it is all about. My friends on the other side of the aisle for 30 years raided the Social Security trust fund and ran up massive…

remember when? Remember when the Democrats controlled the White House and were in the majority in the House and Senate? Remember those days of spend and spend and spend? And what did they give us? The biggest tax hike in the history of our…