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take 1 16 90. Smith. What we need is a nation is a period of moderation in the quest for voting rights for all America. The Congress will be acting upon voting rights legislation in a very few days now. And if it is to act with wisdom, we must avoid pressures and threats and, of course, acts of terrorism.

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What we need is a spirit of conciliation, not threats of economic boycott or new demonstrations, either in Selma or Tallahassee or anywhere. It's time for a thinking, a period of cooling off when when these established institute again, you're doing so good sound. Scene one. Take to Smithers spot.

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What we need is a nation is a period of moderation in the quest for voting rights for all Americans. Congress will be acting upon voting rights legislation in a very few days, And if it is to act with wisdom, we must avoid pressures and threats and, of course, acts of terrorism.

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What we need now is a spirit of conciliation, not threats of economic boycott or new demonstrations in Selma or Tallahassee or wherever. It is a time for a think in a period of cooling off when the established institutions of government can function to redress grievances. I have always supported the principle of unrestricted voting rights, and if the legislation now pending before Congress is written so as to ensure those rights without imposing civil wrongs, I shall support it.

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But ladies and gentlemen, it would be improper to indict the entire state of Alabama in the South for the murders of the Reverend James Reader Viola Greg Liuzzo or Jimmie Lee Jackson. He called for economic boycotts, as Dr Martin Luther King has done, or to advocate disregard of court orders cannot help the cause of civil rights.

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Nor can it serve any purpose other than to harden the attitudes and perhaps lights still more torches to draw the assassins from their dark corners. Sound law is not written in periods of emotion and uproar. If we are to continue our Democratic heritage of orderly change, it is time for reflection and sober thought on the part of all of our citizens.

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With April 15th the final day for sending in our federal income tax forms just around the corner, I'd like to spend some time this week explaining a number of provisions and her tax laws, which will be an interested benefit for those taxpayers who are 65 years of age and older.

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As I mentioned to you last week on my program, these provisions are contained in a pamphlet, which is published by the Internal Revenue Service and entitled Tax Benefits for Older Americans. Any of you watching or listening today would like a copy free of charge. Please write to me here in Washington, and I'll be happy to see that you receive one.

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One of the most important tax benefits for our older citizens is the extra $600 a year exemption, which was put into the law last year. Every taxpayer who has reached the age of 65 is entitled to this extra exemption, which is in addition to the regular $600 exemption, which all taxpayers receive, so a person over 65 years of age can now claim to $600.

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Exemptions are a total of $1200 this year. Husband and wife, both over 65 are entitled to four exemptions of $600 a total of $2400. And these four exemptions, plus the new minimum standard deduction, which I'm going to tell you about just a second, mean that a husband and a wife with both over 65 will not be required to pay any income tax if their total taxable income is $3000 or less.

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Another brand new tax provisions this year is one which allows a taxpayer over 65 to sell his home without having to pay any income tax on the profit that he might receive from the sale of that. Cut it out because you refer to no take to smoke.

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Yeah, with April 15th, the final day for sending federal income tax form just around the corner, I'd like to spend some time this week explaining a few of these provisions in her tax bill, which will be of interest and benefit to taxpayers who are 65 years of age and older.

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As I mentioned on this program last week, these provisions are contained in a pamphlet published by the Internal Revenue Service and entitled Tax Benefits for Older Americans. If any of you watching or listening today would like a copy free of charge, please write to me here in Washington and I will be happy to see that you receive one.

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One of the most important tax benefits for our older citizens is the extra $600 a year exemption. This was put into the law last year. Every taxpayer who has reached the age of 65 is entitled to this extra exemption, which is in addition to the regular $600 exemption, which all taxpayers received so a person over 65 can claim to 600.

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Dollar exemptions are a total of $1200. Husband and wife, both of whom are over 65 are entitled to four exemptions of $600 apiece for a total of $2400. And these four exemptions mean that a husband and wife who are over both over 65 will not be required to pay any income tax if their total taxable income is $3000 or less.

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Another brand new tax provisions this year there's one which allows a taxpayer over 65 to sell his home without having to pay any any income tax on the profit that he receives from that sale. I might add that this is a provision which I have long sponsored, and I was very pleased to see it included in the 1964 tax reduction bill.

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To exclude from income the profit of the sale of your home, you must meet these three requirements first. You must have been 65 or older before you sold it. Secondly, the property which you sold must have been both owned and used as your principal residence for at least five years out of the past eight years.

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And thirdly, the sales price must be less than $20,000. However, if the sales prices over $20,000 a portion of that gain still can be excluded on a proportionate basis. Now, another change in the law of interest to our elderly taxpayers relates to the retirement income credit.

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For those of you who are not familiar with this term, a retirement credit is a tax benefit which has been given for a number of years to make retirement income taxable at a lower rate than regular income. Last year, Congress amended the law to give a higher retirement income credit for some married couples over 65 who are willing to file a joint return, an additional tax provisions for the elderly, which I would like to take just a second to discusses this matter of medical and dental deduction drug expenses because an amendment which we put in last year's bill persons over 65 can now deduct the full amount of the expenses that they incur for medicines and drugs.

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And then finally, there's an amendment which we passed last year, which will benefit all taxpayers who own stocks and particularly retired taxpayers who depend upon dividends for their retirement and living income. This new law permits a retired taxpayer to exclude from his gross income the 1st $100 of the amount he receives from dividends.

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Prior to this year, he was only permitted to deduct $50. So according to the new law, a married couple filing a joint return can deduct up to $200 if each has at least $100 of income derived from stock dividends. Now, if anything I've said is not completely clear to you, and I'm sure that a lot of it will not be clear, or if you would like some additional details of these provisions, which I've talked about, don't hesitate to write me and I will be happy to not only send you the Internal Revenue Service booklet explaining in length these important changes, but I shall be glad you try to answer your own personal questions as you address them.

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To me. My time is up. Thank you very much for looking and listening in. Mhm. Well, senators matters. You've covered the tax situation for the elderly, I think quite well. But now, looking to the future with regard to providing a better life for our nation's elderly, one of the major problems confronting our senior citizen.

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Of course, the major problems Bob or two first occupy their time. Those who want to be in full retirement, they still want to do something. That's why we've got such laws in the books, and I will introduce some new laws, which would provide for better community facilities for entertainment in Florida.

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You'll notice that all these subdivisions which are going on Lehigh Acres I don't wanna start mention them all and Kate, Carl and mackerels up and dealt Daytona and so on. All these people find that they have a great success in selling these areas where there are a lot of activities where there's boating, where there's golf, where there's recreation, where there's bowling, where the things are that character because nobody just wants to stop and sit on their porch and vegetate.

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Of course, there's still a large number of elderly citizens. I think that some 30% of those who are over 65 years old and older, and that means 30% of some 18 million who are still working part time now we're trying to because we think this is so helpful and beneficial to those people.

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And all medical doctors will tell you that people should continue to work as long as they can. We're trying to increase of the right of these people to work and still receive their full Social Security benefit payments. And the limit today is under the law of $1200.

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If they should make over $1200 on outside work, then they begin to lose a portion of their Social Security benefits, and the law used to be $600.800 dollars each year with each few years we've been raising it up. I've been one of the chief sponsors of that legislation and an M again this year.

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We're trying now actually, to get it up to about $2400 because actually, there are a large number of people in our state and elsewhere who would like to work on a part time basis who can do all kinds of work and make two extra $200 a month.

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That, supplemented by their Social Security payments, means that they live in considerably more dignity and considerably more comfort than they would were they not permitted to work. There's another item that you, as chairman of the Committee on Aging, could very easily answer, I think, and that's the one that comes up.

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There's a sort of a penalty invoked When elderly people marry, they lose some of their income. Now, can you do anything about that? Well, we're gonna try to do something about that. Actually, that has been written about because that's natural. It made. It makes for good reading.

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But there have been some recent studies made by the Social Security Services, and they find that this is not uhh. It's not very common, but in point of fact, what it amounts to is this. When a woman, her husband dies and she is a widow and she becomes the head of the household.

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She can get that designation. She gets the full amount of his retirement and his Social Security. Now, if she marries with the fella a widower, then of course, both of them can be the head of household. So she loses her status and therefore has less money in order to keep more money coming in.

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As a very colorful Senator Long of Louisiana said, It's happened that some people just sort of taken up with each other and are living in close proximity in order to get the benefit of this not only the relationship but of additional funds. I think we're going to be able to amend the bill in some respects so that we can continue this head of household for both of them.

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I think probably one of the greatest things that is held against the elderly is a certain amount of discrimination taken by large corporations due to insurance problems and others. Is there anything to be done by your committee that can alleviate that situation? Is the greatest civil wrong that is being perpetrated on the American people?

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We hear about civil rights today and people not being able to vote. But I think the greatest wrong that we see that there is is the fact that when a man gets to be 45 or 40 in some instances and lose his job and tries to go to either to government service or to some corporate work, that they won't take him in because they figured that he will not work there long enough to make his proper contribution to their retirement fund or to their pension fund with the result that they just turn him down.

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So the greatest area of unemployment today in all unemployment are those people. The greatest numbers are found in that bracket from about 40 to 55 years old, and you're going to correct that situation. We're going to try desperately to correct it. Thank you very much. Senator George Smathers.

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Yeah,