[The Penalty for Being Married]

Always the divider, Clinton/Gore maintained the gulf between married folks and, most notably, same-sex "couples," by vetoing Congress's attempt to lift the tax penalty on married couples. One may fairly assume that any action taken by Clinton from this date forward will have met with the tacit approval of Al Gore. The bill would have eliminated the marriage income tax penalty costing 12 million families about $1,480 more in income taxes than unmarried "couples" with the same incomes.

George Bush responded, "The Clinton-Gore administration chose to tax marriage. ... The president should not have vetoed it and our opponent Al Gore should have spoken out on it. Instead of standing on the side of families, he stands on the side of big government. Had I been the president of the United States, I would have signed that bill."

Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, added, "Rather than doing what is right for America, Bill Clinton and Al Gore decided to continue to engage in class warfare and veto the bill that would eliminate the marriage penalty for millions of married couples across America. Clearly Clinton and Gore are more concerned about politics than people, especially working families. With a simple stroke of the pen, he cost 25 million taxpayers $89.5 billion."

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Commentary Form Foamy Dog

Does this make sense to anyone? It has been my experience that married people have a hard enough time making ends meet (by any remote stretch of the imagination) these days. The cost of housing and health care are so out of control, it is difficult at best for a married couple to get a start in life. If they wish to buy or build a home, (I don't think that's too much to ask do you?) too often they are just sh@# out of luck.

So now enters the Government's gentle hand. Without the above mentioned taken into consideration Uncle Bill decides that married should be penalized (what did we do?) by about 89.5 billion dollars. Yeah, this is really fostering the economic growth of the American family (not!)

I don't want to overlook the fact that Clinton is married (using the term very loosely.) So is the fact that his experience has been, well . . . you read the news, prompting him to discourage others from trying their hand at marital bliss? Or is the fact that he and Mrs. Bill are doing pretty well for themselves (financially home and health care wise) make him think that the rest of America's married population can spare the cash? Well I have news for him . . .

--FoamyDog

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