http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/LA0776.html
Friday, 11 February 2000
ARIZONA ROLL CALL
Arizona's five Republicans voted for the bill. Democrat
Ed Pastor voted against it.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Dispatching an election-year valentine,
Republicans won House passage yesterday of legislation that would
cut income taxes $182 billion over 10 years for all married taxpayers,
including the 25 million couples who pay a ``marriage penalty''
compared with single people.
The vote, timed to coincide with Valentine's Day next week, was
268-158 to send the bill to the Senate. Although 48 Democrats
joined all Republicans in favor, it was short of a veto-proof
edge.
Senate passage is far from certain, and President Clinton is threatening
a veto over the bill's cost and timing. Yet House GOP leaders
trumpeted the measure as the first in a series of tax cuts that
would return a portion of projected budget surpluses to taxpayers
and limit the growth of government.
``We need a tax code that doesn't punish married couples,'' said
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. ``They need to buy braces
for the kids. They need to buy insurance for the car and the home.
They don't need the federal government picking their pocket.''
It was a day for politicians of every stripe to ally themselves
with the popular issue, even if they opposed this particular bill.
Despite his veto warning, Clinton said at a Capitol Hill appearance,
``We know we should do this.'' But he wants marriage penalty tax
relief targeted more toward lower- and middle-class taxpayers.
``We are united in saying, `Let's do it now,' '' Clinton told
a Democratic rally.
The ``marriage penalty'' occurs because millions of couples who
file joint returns are forced to pay taxes at higher rates than
if they were single and filing separately, especially if each
spouse earns roughly the same income. The penalty strikes most
frequently at income levels between $20,000 and $75,000 and costs
couples an average of $1,400 a year, according to congressional
estimates.
The GOP bill would cut taxes for those couples as well as millions
of others who already get a marriage ``bonus,'' mainly those in
which one spouse earns the lion's share of family income.
It would gradually expand the bottom 15 percent tax bracket to
apply to more of a married couple's income, boost the standard
deduction in 2001 for married filers to twice that of singles
and raise the income cap to allow more lower-income couples to
claim the earned income tax credit.
About 50 million married couples filed joint income tax returns
in 1997, the most recent year for which complete statistics are
available from the Internal Revenue Service.
Democrats complained that half of the bill's total tax cut would
go to couples who already receive a bonus and would consume a
large chunk of the projected budget surplus before plans are laid
to ensure the future solvency of Social Security and Medicare,
to pay down the national debt and to guarantee adequate government
spending.
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