Rod Grams: “When my colleague says he hasn't run into those folks, I have, and I concur with what the other Senators said, that they…”

“When my colleague says he hasn't run into those folks, I have, and I concur with what the other Senators said, that they have. I have had a number of couples come up to me, whether at airports or at meetings or at other times, and tell me exactly the same thing the other Senators have said. They have actually planned around this, whether they have delayed the marriage for a year--I even had one elderly gentleman tell me he called his wife from the accountant, he was 79 years old, and he said to his wife, ``I think we need to get a divorce.'' She was kind of shocked by it and she said, ``Why?'' And he said, ``Because we would be much better off if we were filing single.'' And then he went through the explanation. So this is not something that has gone by Americans, and especially families, and especially dual-income families. So I think there are many out there who are aware of this. When it comes to a difference of $3,500 a year, for those first years I think a lot of families are thinking very strongly about it. But just briefly, I want to wrap this up and give a couple of minutes to my other colleagues here. But I just think, when we look at the numbers, Washington created this ``unintended consequence'' within the Tax Code, that, as I mentioned, penalized some 21 million American couples to a tune of about $29 billion a year.”