Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Smith) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Smith), is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Washington (Mr. Gorton) and the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Smith) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici), and the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) and the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth), the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Hagel), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Thurmond), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Helms) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Hagel), the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth), and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Thompson) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Thompson), and the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Hagel) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning) are necessarily absent. I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning), would vote ``no.''

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning) are necessarily absent. I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning) would vote ``yea.''

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) and the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Florida (Mr. Mack), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), and the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I say to my colleague from Montana that I have no objection, as soon as we run it by the two leaders. If they want to postpone the vote for 30 minutes, fine. For the information of our colleagues, we have a vote scheduled at 12 o'clock. I think some people are trying to go to luncheons and different things. For scheduling purposes, it may be postponed until 12:30. That is perfectly fine with this Senator. I want to make my comments on the marriage tax penalty. I compliment my colleagues from Texas and Kansas for their leadership in trying to eliminate the so-called marriage tax penalty. We have a chance to do that. We have to get to the amendment. Some people do not want to get to the amendment. If we get to the amendment, we can have relevant amendments. I understand some people have different ideas of different ways of eliminating the marriage tax penalty. Fine. Let's consider them and vote on them. I think the way the Finance Committee--I happen to be a member of the Finance Committee--reported it out is the preferred way to do it. Very simply put, we have a tax bracket right now that is very complicated. But we have different brackets. We have a zero bracket, a 15-percent bracket, a 28-percent bracket, a 31-percent bracket, and a 39.6-percent bracket. Thanks to President Clinton and Vice President Gore, the rates have gone up. People shouldn't be penalized because one spouse works or two spouses work. They shouldn't be penalized under the system because they are married. Right now you can have one spouse working, say making $40,000 and in the 28-percent bracket. Another spouse is making $20,000 and presumably would be in the 15-percent bracket, but right now under current law that $20,000 by one spouse is taxed at the 28-percent tax bracket. It costs them about $1,400. That is unfair. We eliminate that in our proposal. We double the 15-percent tax bracket. Individuals making up to $26,000 pay 15 percent in tax. We double that. We say if it is 15 percent in taxes at $26,000, let's double that for couples and make that $52,000. That will save them about $1,100. We double the exemption. The exemption right now is $4,400. We say double that. That should be $8,800. We double it. That saves a couple hundred dollars. That is where we get the marriage tax penalty figure of about $1,400 for a couple, if their income combined is $52,000. Let's do that. I have heard President Clinton say he wants to get rid of it. But his proposal doesn't get rid of it. It may be good rhetorically. It may be good on the campaign stump. But there is no substance. The President does not eliminate the marriage tax penalty. As a matter of fact, the President doesn't cut taxes. He doesn't want tax cuts. I respect that. He has a tax increase for this year. President Clinton's budget proposal increases taxes by a net of $9 billion in the year 2001. Over 5 years, the President has a proposal for a net tax cut of a measly $5 billion. Keep in mind that the Federal Government is going to be taking in about $10 trillion over that same 5 years. But he would only allow for such a small percentage that it won't even show up. We are trying to give tax cuts to taxpayers who are married and penalized under the system. We do that basically by doubling the 15- percent bracket and eventually doubling the 28-percent bracket. One working spouse that makes a lot less is not thrown into a higher bracket. We also don't penalize the stay-at-home spouse. We basically double the individual brackets. We do that right away so we don't discriminate against somebody if they make a sacrifice and say they want to stay home with the kids. If this is a tax bracket for individuals, we say double it for couples. It is the fairest system you can come up with, and it is tax relief for American couples. It is significantly greater than that proposed by the President. But I hope this Congress will pass it in a bipartisan fashion as we did by eliminating the Social Security earnings penalty. We passed that earlier by an overwhelming margin. The President signed it. Some of us had been pushing that for years. Some of us for years have been pushing to eliminate the marriage tax penalty. We have a chance to do that. We need to have our colleagues vote in favor of the cloture motion at 12 noon or at 12:30 in order to make that happen. I urge my colleagues to do it. If colleagues have alternative ways of dealing with the marriage tax penalty they wish to have considered, I think we are happy to vote on those. I thank my colleague from Kansas for yielding me time, and I thank my colleague from Texas, Senator Hutchison, for her leadership. I hope today within the hour we will make giant strides and ultimately pass it before we leave this Congress. I hope in the next day or two we pass a bill that would eliminate the earnings marriage tax penalty on married couples. I thank my colleague for yielding me 5 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. I object at this point.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I will modify my request and take 5 minutes of the time of the Senator from Texas. I have no objection. The majority leader and the minority leader will probably come out to make the decision on extending the time for the vote. Some people have luncheon conflicts, and so on. I have no objection to it.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I will speak in morning business for up to 5 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, how much time does the Senator from Texas have remaining?

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Jeffords) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Roth) is necessarily absent.