[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2191]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015

                     STOP THE MARRIAGE TAX PENALTY

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, a lot of people ask me why the government 
penalizes couples for being married, and the only answer that can I 
come up with is that the government does some dumb things, and this is 
one of them.
  Who is willing to defend this bizarre monstrosity in the tax code? 
Who will step forward and explain to the American couples in my 
district why Uncle Sam thinks they should pay more to the government 
for being married than if they were shacked up? What kind of cruel 
genius came up with the idea of penalizing people for being married?
  I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to join me in doing away 
with the marriage tax penalty, a penalty which hits especially hard on 
those who are just getting by. Enough of this travesty. We have it 
within our power this year to stop at least one dumb thing this 
government is doing.

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