The marriage penalty provisions are included the multi-trillion dollar tax and social spending legislation being written by congressional Democrats.
This week U.S. Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith joined 32 other senators in writing a letter to ask Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden to remove new tax penalties from Democrats’ current reconciliation package that would discourage marriage.
The marriage penalty provisions are included the multi-trillion dollar tax and social spending legislation that is being written by congressional Democrats.
Democrats in the House have created a bill that encompasses President Biden’s domestic policy priorities. Due to the opposition from Republicans, Democrats aim to pass the bill through reconciliation purely with sole support from the Democratic legislators.
In the letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, they argue that current marriage penalties occur when a household’s overall tax bill increases due to a couple marrying and filing taxes jointly.
Federal programs such as Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Section 8 housing assistance, create marriage penalties by either decreasing or eliminating married couples.
“Federal policy should be designed to foster strong marriages, which are the foundation of strong families and strong communities. Unfortunately, despite its original rollout as part of the “American Families Plan,” the current draft of the reconciliation bill takes an existing marriage penalty in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and makes it significantly worse. This is not the only marriage penalty created or worsened by the partisan bill,” the senators wrote.
The letter ends by stating, “We believe that marriage is a vital social good. It is misguided and unfair for the government to build bigger barriers for couples to marry.”
You can read the full letter here.
Anne Summerhays
