their late spouses. politicians often tout the importance of taking care of servicemembers and their families. >> this rule is perplexing. our jason carroll son the story. and no one can figure this out. >> a lot of words describe this as bizarre, confusing or perplexing. it's a law known as the widow's tax. it affects 55,000 military widowers and widows by requiring them to remarry after the age of 57 in order to collect full survivor benefits. those who remarry early miss out as those who never marry. vivian wirtzle has been fighting. her husband died of a heart attack, one week after returning from serving in iraq. >> to me, it's insulting that in order for me to receive something my husband worked so hard for, and we worked as a