Russ Feingold: “one thing observers of the Senate are not likely to see today is anyone defending the marriage penalty. The tax code…”

“one thing observers of the Senate are not likely to see today is anyone defending the marriage penalty. The tax code should not discourage the act of getting married, and it should not encourage divorce. There is widespread agreement that Congress should pass marriage penalty relief. The President's budget included a proposal to address the marriage penalty. And last week, the Senate voted 99-1 in favor of sense of the Senate language calling on us to ``pass marriage penalty tax relief legislation that begins a phase down of this penalty in 2001.'' The marriage penalty is particularly burdensome for lower-income couples--and many young couples don't have much to spare. For some of these couples, the amount of their taxes could actually affect their decision whether or not to marry. Luckily, in the vast majority of cases, in the words of a recent law review article, love triumphs over money. But in this debate that the majority has scheduled for the week before the April 15 tax deadline, one can be forgiven for harboring the suspicion that more than marriage penalty relief is involved.”