[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13471-13472]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   ESTABLISHING FAIRNESS IN TAX CODE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend President Bush for 
his leadership, to thank this Congress for passing a tax plan that is 
predicted by outside and independent economists to generate about 1.3 
million new jobs over the next 18 months, legislation that says if you 
pay Federal income taxes, you will receive Federal income tax relief.
  For the people of Illinois that I represent, it is estimated that the 
average Illinois family will see an extra thousand dollars in higher 
take-home pay. If they are Federal income taxpayers, they will receive 
Federal income tax relief.
  The bottom line is that it will create jobs. If we put extra money in 
the pocketbook of workers, we put incentives for workers to invest, and 
it creates jobs.
  One of the issues I have been involved in over the last several years 
has been an effort to bring fairness to the Tax Code, and that is to 
address the issue of the marriage tax penalty. A quirk in the Tax Code 
or a complicated Tax Code which has gotten more complicated over the 
years where you had a situation where both the husband and wife were in 
the workforce, and because they both are in the workforce and pay 
Federal income taxes, when they file, as married, they file jointly, 
combine their incomes, and that pushes them into a higher tax bracket; 
whereas if they lived together and filed as two single people, they 
would have saved money. Is that right, that under our Tax Code 42 
million married working couples paid on average $1,700 in higher taxes 
just because they are married?
  I have an example of a couple in Joliet, Illinois, that I represent, 
Jose and Magdalena Castillo. They are construction workers in Joliet. 
Their son is Eduardo and their daughter is Carolina. For them, their 
marriage tax penalty has been about $1,400. For them, $1,400, that is 
several months' worth of car payments or day-care for their children 
while they are at work, or home mortgage payments for this family. So 
eliminating the marriage tax penalty and bringing fairness to the Tax 
Code will make a big difference in the lives of the Castillos of 
Joliet, Illinois.
  I am proud to say in the first tax cut of 2001, we passed the first 
effort into law to eliminate the marriage tax penalty. It had twice 
been vetoed by Bill Clinton, but President Bush signed it into law, an 
effort to phase out the marriage action penalty. I am pleased to 
commend the President for signing into law the Jobs and Economic Growth 
Package that made effective this year the elimination of the marriage 
tax penalty. So rather than Jose and Magdalena Castillo having to wait 
over this decade for the marriage tax penalty to be eliminated, we 
eliminated it this year.
  So that means the Castillos will have an extra $1,400 that they will 
be able to spend at home to take care of their family's needs, make 
some improvements around the house, buy some back-to-school clothes, 
and make a down payment on a new car. That creates jobs.
  I am pleased to say the President signed the legislation passed by a 
majority of the House and the Senate, which will eliminate the marriage 
tax penalty now.
  When we think about it, this unfairness in the Tax Code had existed 
for years, and those on the other side of the aisle, they resisted 
efforts to eliminate the marriage tax penalty. They said we could 
better spend the money here in Washington than Jose and Magdalena 
Castillo back in Joliet, Illinois. I am pleased to say that a majority 
of this House believes that Jose and Magdalena Castillo of Joliet, 
Illinois, can better spend their hard-earned money back in Joliet, 
Illinois, than I and my colleagues can for them here in Washington.
  I think we need to be celebrating the fact that we eliminated the 
marriage tax penalty, and we did it in two ways. For those who itemize 
their taxes, people like Jose and Magdalena Castillo, they are 
homeowners, so they itemize their taxes, we widen the 15 percent tax 
bracket so people like Jose and Magdalena Castillo can earn twice as 
much as a single person and stay in the 15 percent tax bracket, and 
that wipes out their marriage tax penalty.
  And for those who do not own a home or give to their church or 
institution of faith or charity, so they do not have enough to itemize, 
they use something called the standard deduction, under our 
legislation, we double the standard deduction to twice that for 
singles, and for those who do not itemize, we eliminate the marriage 
tax penalty.

[[Page 13472]]

  I thank the Republican majority and President Bush for eliminating 
the marriage tax penalty and helping bringing fairness to the Tax Code 
in 2003.

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