Today, Mr. Speaker, as we know, is Valentine's Day and many of us are away from our spouses, but it is a good time to remember our sweethearts. I think back on my sweetheart that I married over 26 years ago. We had struggles just like everyone else. Many of those struggles center around finances. My wife is working, I am working, and this is typical of couples.
Couples struggle today and part of that struggle is simply financial.
If we can help the married couples in the United States, the married couples in Arkansas by providing some tax relief in the form of doing away with a penalty they should not pay, then I think we have done something very good for America, very good for our couples and this is certainly an appropriate day to remind America of what we did in this Congress. Now, I say this Congress. We passed in the House, and we still of course need to have that same marriage tax penalty elimination act passed by the Senate and presented to the President for his signature, and we hope that he will sign that. If you combine those two incomes under a fair tax system, their tax should simply double. This hurts that single mom who decides to get married, it hurts any couple that decides to unite in matrimony, and it is a penalty because they are married.