Kay Bailey Hutchison: “This is the Faircloth-Hutchison amendment and it is also the Faircloth-Hutchison bill that would eliminate the marriage…”

“This is the Faircloth-Hutchison amendment and it is also the Faircloth-Hutchison bill that would eliminate the marriage penalty tax. All this amendment says is, it is a priority of Congress to eliminate the marriage penalty tax. We don't think Americans should have to choose between love and money. Yet 21 million American couples today have to make that exact choice, because they go into a higher tax bracket when they get married. Let me give an example. A rookie policemen in Houston, TX, makes $33,500. His wife is a schoolteacher in the Pasadena independent school district making $28,200 a year. When this young couple got married, they owed Uncle Sam $1,000 more a year. This is at a time when they would like to buy their first home, when they have to buy a second car. They are having to pay Uncle Sam $1,000 because they got married. That could be two house payments, three or four car payments, and we are taking it away from them by an unfair Tax Code. Our Tax Code does not meet the fairness test. I think this sense of the Senate says it best--that it will be the highest priority of Congress to correct this inequity in the law.”