[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14101-14102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         JOBS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH PACKAGE HELPS MARRIED COUPLES

  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 would really like today to take a few 
minutes to celebrate the enactment into law of the Jobs and Economic 
Growth Package legislation that was passed by a majority of this House 
and a majority

[[Page 14102]]

of the Senate and signed into law just 2 weeks ago, legislation that 
will help every Federal income tax payer. It will help revitalize our 
economy. It takes the approach that if you put extra money in the 
pocketbooks of consumers, they will have more money to spend to meet 
their families' needs and also to give incentives to businesses to 
invest. It will create jobs.
  One of the benefits of this package is it not only helps everybody 
who pays Federal income taxes, but also 3 million low-income families 
who 2 weeks ago paid income taxes will no longer be required to pay 
income taxes because we lowered the rate so they no longer have to pay 
Federal income taxes benefiting 3 million low-income taxpayers.
  I would like to focus on one provision that was a key and central 
part of the Jobs and Economic Growth Package and is really a provision 
that not only put extra money in the pocketbooks of families, but it 
also brought fairness now, fairness this year to the Tax Code, and that 
is the provision which wipes out the marriage tax penalty this year for 
42 million married working couples. As one of those who has raised this 
issue over the last several years, I congratulate President Bush for 
signing this legislation into law. It is really an issue of fairness. 
Is it right, is it fair that under our Tax Code 42 million married 
working couples on average paid $1,700 more in higher taxes just 
because they were married?
  Think about that. Husband and wife, they are both in the workforce, 
they file their taxes jointly when they are married; and because of 
that, our Tax Code previously pushed them into a higher tax bracket and 
required them on average to pay $1,700 more. If you think about it, 
that is a lot of money.
  Take Jose and Magdalena Castillo of Joliet, Illinois. A working 
family in Joliet. They work hard. They have two children, Eduardo and 
Carolina. They are construction workers. For this family, for Jose and 
Magdalena Castillo, their marriage tax penalty was about $1,450. Now 
here in Washington, for some that is chump change; and they would 
rather spend the Castillos' income here in Washington rather than allow 
the Castillo family to keep more of what they earn to meet their needs.
  If you think about it, $1,450, that is a semester's worth of tuition 
at Joliet Junior College. It is several months of day care for Eduardo 
and Carolina while mom and dad are at work. It is several months' worth 
of car payments. It is a mortgage payment or two for the average family 
in Joliet, Illinois. So by eliminating the marriage tax penalty, we 
really help the Castillo family.
  So I want to thank the President for signing into law the Jobs and 
Economic Growth Package because as a result of the President signing 
the Jobs and Economic Growth Package into law, 42 million married 
working couples like Jose and Magdalena Castillo of Joliet, Illinois, 
they no longer pay the marriage tax penalty this year.
  We help married couples in two ways. There are two kind of taxpayers. 
Those who itemize and those who do not itemize. If you own a home, if 
you donate to your church or charity or synagogue, you probably 
itemize. And the way we benefit those who are married and are both in 
the workforce and who have suffered the marriage tax penalty before is 
we widen the 15 percent tax bracket so that a two-earner couple, a 
married couple, could earn twice as much as one single person. And by 
earning twice as much, they would still stay in that 15 percent tax 
bracket. So we essentially eliminate the marriage tax penalty for 42 
million couples.
  For those who do not itemize, we have doubled the standard 
deductions. If you do not itemize, you use the standard deduction; and 
we make the standard deduction twice that for joint filers, for married 
couples. Twice the size of a single filer's standard deduction.
  The bottom line is, we eliminate the marriage tax penalty for 42 
million married working couples. Whether they itemize their taxes or 
whether they do not itemize their taxes, we eliminate their marriage 
tax penalty. And for a married couple like Jose and Magdalena Castillo, 
who like 42 million other married couples across this country suffer 
the marriage tax penalty, they will have extra money that really, 
rightfully should be theirs. The Castillo family should not have to pay 
higher taxes just because they chose to get married. It is not right. 
It is not fair. And really it punishes society's most basic 
institution, to punish marriage.
  I want to thank the President. I want to thank the majority of this 
Congress for passing the Jobs and Economic Growth Package. And we 
should be celebrating the fact that 42 million married working couples 
will see their marriage penalty tax eliminated this year.

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