NAN A. S. HAYWORTH: “I thank my colleague for the work he has done in focusing attention on the marriage penalty, one of the many features of…”

“I thank my colleague for the work he has done in focusing attention on the marriage penalty, one of the many features of our Tax Code that was just plain wrong. It did not make sense to penalize married couples, when other couples living out of wedlock were enjoying economic benefits as opposed to those who played by the rules, worked hard and observed the institution of marriage. There are so many different things that we are offering in this relatively modest package of tax relief. Again, remember, we are setting aside $1,400,000,000,000 of the surplus to stay, to strengthen, to save Social Security, and only 10 percent of the projected surplus would go to tax relief. But in that package I think especially about my district and the seniors who live in my district and the many seniors who find that they have to work. As much as they would like to have the leisure time, their situation demands that they still need to earn an income. And what we have done, as part of this bill of tax relief, is to increase the amount of money seniors can earn without losing Social Security benefits by increasing that earnings limit; to raise that, understanding that some people, A, enjoy working, they still want to be active, they appreciate the dignity of work, and they do not want to be penalized for working but; B, some folks, quite frankly, need it to make ends work. Why then would we seek to punish those seniors? And that is another area that is so vitally important.…”