Despite Veto Threat, Senate OKs Marriage Penalty Bill

The Senate passed a Republican bill Friday that would slash income taxes for 50 million married couples, inviting a veto confrontation over budget surplus politics with President Clinton.

The vote was 60 to 34 to pass the so-called marriage penalty bill, with seven Democrats joining all but one Republican in support. At a cost of $292 billion over 10 years, GOP sponsors portrayed the bill as a modest refund of a portion of the projected $2.17 trillion in non-Social Security surplus revenue to middle-class taxpayers.

“I would ask those who oppose this family tax relief: Just how big will America’s budget surplus have to get before America’s families deserve to receive some of their tax dollars back?” said Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Clinton promised Friday to veto the bill, saying its benefits are tilted toward families in the top 1% income range and that, along with other GOP tax cuts, it would consume surplus dollars that could be used better for such priorities as paying off the public debt and providing a Medicare drug benefit.

Neither the Senate nor the House vote Thursday reached the two-thirds margins needed to override a veto.

There was a question of exactly when the bill would reach the president, complicated by Clinton’s absence. He’s in Okinawa, Japan, at an economic summit. Under the Constitution, he has 10 days to veto it--not counting Sundays and the day he gets it--or it becomes law.

The bill would remedy features of the tax code that force 25 million married couples to pay higher income taxes than single people, mainly by enlarging the bottom 15% tax bracket and increasing the standard tax deduction for couples filing jointly. But it would also cut taxes for millions more couples who now enjoy a marriage “bonus” because one spouse earns the bulk of the family income.