John Joseph Moakley: “Mr. Speaker, we all agree the marriage tax is unfair. It punishes people for getting married just when they are thinking…”

“Mr. Speaker, we all agree the marriage tax is unfair. It punishes people for getting married just when they are thinking of starting a family, and it really needs to be abolished. The question is how to abolish it. There is a Democratic bill; there is a Republican bill. The central difference between the two bills is who is benefited. The Republican bill will benefit the richest 25 percent of Americans, including a lot of people who do not even pay the marriage penalty in the first place. The Democratic bill benefits working families who really need it, working families with children who are trying to save for a home, who are trying to put their children through school, who are trying to make ends meet. They should not have to pay additional taxes just because they are married; and unless they are very rich, the Republican bill just does not work for them. The reason the Republican bill will not work, Mr. Speaker, is because it increases the standard deduction without adjusting the alternative minimum tax.”