Kay Bailey Hutchison: “for 4 years now, I have introduced a bill to eliminate the marriage penalty tax. I have said all of these years that I…”

“for 4 years now, I have introduced a bill to eliminate the marriage penalty tax. I have said all of these years that I do not think Americans should have to choose between love and money. They should be able to get married and not be penalized because they do. But in fact 25 million married couples in America today do pay a penalty just because they got married. The sad thing is, the average penalty they pay is about $1,400. That is $1,400 that a young couple would like to have as they are starting their lives together, for the things they want: Like the down payment on the new house or the new car or the expenses associated with having children. We want them to be able to have the money they earn to make their choices rather than having Uncle Sam take $1,400 more just because of what amounts to a glitch in the Tax Code that requires these married couples to pay this penalty. The bill I have just introduced today, S. 11, is cosponsored by Senators Brownback, Lott, Nickles, Allen, Bunning, Burns, Crapo, Frist, Gramm, Hagel, Kyl, Ensign, McConnell, Murkowski and Warner. This is a bill that I hope will have broad bipartisan support because, in fact, we have passed it twice and sent it to the President with bipartisan majorities in the past. The President has chose to veto the bills before, but today we have a new President who I believe will sign marriage penalty relief. It was part of President Bush's campaign.”