Bill Archer: “Mr. Speaker, for many reasons, I rise in strong opposition to this substitute amendment. But perhaps the most important…”

“Mr. Speaker, for many reasons, I rise in strong opposition to this substitute amendment. But perhaps the most important reason is shown in these charts. Here is the basic H.R. 6 bill. What it does to provide relief, it doubles the standard deduction for joint filers. It helps couples that itemize, such as homeowners, widens the 15 percent tax bracket. That is a big help to middle-income working Americans. We did not double the 28 percent bracket, the 31 percent bracket, the 33 percent bracket or the 39.6 percent bracket. Those are the brackets that apply to higher income. They were left alone. We doubled the 15 percent bracket. That helps middle-income working Americans, and increases the phase-out range for the earned income credit by $2,000. This is real relief from the marriage penalty. And also included therein is relief for stay-at-home moms who have elected to do the most important task in our society and that is to rear children. The Democrats do not want them to get any help out of this bill. They call it a marriage bonus. So be it. Call it a marriage bonus, but, yes, we unabashedly also help the stay-at-home moms. Now, what is the Democrat substitute, as estimated by the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee? There it is, my colleagues. The Joint Tax Committee estimates that the Democrat substitute delivers zero tax relief.”