—because it has clouded the discussion here around the bill.
Again, for any of the folks still alive who were originally affected, this would simply change the rate as they file a tax return from now, on a go-forward basis. It would mean a change for them, a positive change, but we're not asking in this bill for retroactivity. To go back and correct all the tax forms for all of these people over the years would be quite costly, I imagine, and quite significant. We're simply looking to redress, on a go-forward basis, the wrong that was done at that time.
When you think about it, these people who were already retired got three weeks' notice that things were being changed. If you want to draw a comparison with the income trust situation, for example, there's some transitional period, moving forward, for people who are going to be affected by a significant tax change. These guys got three weeks. Things changed instantly for them in a very detrimental way.
Take the example of somebody who makes just over $20,000, their gross U.S. social security benefit at about half of that. Their taxes in 1995 were just over $1,000. In 1996 that jumped to $2,600. In 1997, with the tax change down to the 85% inclusion rate, it was still at just over $2,000--a far cry from the $1,000 in taxes they paid two years before.
So this really hurts people even at low-income levels. That change on a go-forward basis would restore some of that $1,000 income back to people at low-income levels, and of course at other levels of income as well.