Thomas Foley: “I particularly commend my colleague from Illinois (Mr. Weller) on his fine presentation on eliminating the marriage…”

“I particularly commend my colleague from Illinois (Mr. Weller) on his fine presentation on eliminating the marriage penalty, a vote we had first and foremost in our Committee on Ways and Means, of which I am a proud member, and obviously brought to the floor with overwhelming success in a bipartisan spirit of trying to eliminate the tax burden on married couples throughout America. Another issue we are debating and considering... is the Speaker of this House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert). They say success has many parents and failure is an orphan. Well, today we can call one bill that will be coming to the Committee on Ways and Means next week and hopefully quickly to the House floor a very big success and that is thanks to the hard work, again, of the Speaker. In 1986, Mr. Hastert... introduced a bill to eliminate the earnings penalty by our seniors that basically for the ages of 65 through 69, when they continue to work productively, they start losing, diminishing, their Social Security monies that come to their account. So virtually in America one is penalized, based on the Tax Code, for working past the age of 65.”