Angie Craig: “certainly, Kay Bailey Hutchison, our colleague from Texas, has led us on the issue of the marriage penalty tax. I think…”

“certainly, Kay Bailey Hutchison, our colleague from Texas, has led us on the issue of the marriage penalty tax. I think probably she has sensitized all of us to it as only a woman can. I mean that in the sense of understanding the true balance that ought to be in this Tax Code that isn't in the Tax Code. She has been persistent with the Congress and with this Senate to assure that we develop a sense of equity and balance in the Tax Code that our marriage penalty tax relief legislation will offer. Who pays the marriage penalty? In our country, about 22 million married couples do. They are not wealthy. They are modest- and middle- income families. In my State of Idaho, that is 129,710 families. To really bring this home, if, from the time a couple marries, they were to put away, with interest, the difference in the disparity of taxes between $1,000 and $1,400 per year, on the average, for their first child, they could afford to pay 3 years of his or her education at a State institution in my State of Idaho. So it is significant. It is important. There is no question it would help, and can help, the American family.”