Kay Bailey Hutchison: “We are going to take care of Medicare. We are going to have reform that includes prescription drugs of some kind. But we…”

“We are going to take care of Medicare. We are going to have reform that includes prescription drugs of some kind. But we are saying a good idea is in the wrong place, and it is going to absolutely eliminate the ability for us to correct a huge inequity in the Tax Code. This is not a tax cut. It is a tax correction. Twenty-one million American couples pay an average of $1,400 extra just because they got married. A policeman and a schoolteacher get married and owe $1,000 more in taxes. This is wrong. We must go on record saying that we are not going to tolerate it for one more minute. The Robb amendment eliminates our ability to do that. We cannot allow the Robb amendment to vitiate all the efforts that we have made to correct the marriage penalty tax in this country. We will deal with prescription drugs. We will deal with Medicare. We are committed to doing that, and we are committed to doing it in this budget. I urge rejection of the Robb amendment and the passage of the Hutchison-Ashcroft amendment.”