Kay Bailey Hutchison: “first, I respect the distinguished chairman, Senator Grassley, and his ranking member, Senator Baucus, for crafting the…”

“first, I respect the distinguished chairman, Senator Grassley, and his ranking member, Senator Baucus, for crafting the tax reduction bill. I know and understand in order to get a complicated and very important bill through a committee that is evenly divided, many compromises must be made. I know Senator Grassley would not have written the bill exactly this way, nor would Senator Baucus, had they been able to write it by themselves. It is with great respect I offer my amendment that somewhat changes the order of the bill, although it is not a huge deviation. Looking at their timetable, I realize how difficult it was for them to say which tax relief comes in the early years and which comes in the later years. When I decided I wanted to try to move the marriage penalty up, it was hard to find something to trade. It was hard to find the offset. Everything in the early years is a very important tax cut and it represents very important tax relief for every American family. I agree with Senator Conrad, we should bring the marriage penalty up earlier, but I disagree with his offset. I think the cut in the tax rates for every working American is the very highest priority. I am going to offer an amendment that would bring the marriage penalty relief up to 2002, rather than beginning in 2006 as in the underlying bill. My offsets are the deductions for some of the education expenses being streamlined over a longer period of time.”