In This Week's Edition of E-News…

Rep. Murphy Votes to Block Middle Class Tax Hike

President’s Budget Released

Congress Accelerates Probe into Fast and Furious Gunwalking Scandal

Rep. Murphy Votes to Block Middle Class Tax Hike

With a temporary tax cut set to expire at the end of February, the House of Representatives today approved a bicameral package to extend tax relief through the end of the year.

Congressman Murphy supported the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act (H.R. 3630), citing the need to stop an automatic tax hike on families and the self-employed. The legislation, which passed by a vote of 293-192, will allow the typical American family to keep an extra $1,000 of their money this year.

Mr. Murphy heard from an overwhelming number of Southwestern Pennsylvanians who urged him to support additional tax relief to ensure working Americans keep more of their money while also advancing spending cuts that shrink the federal government. The final legislative package was backed by a broad and diverse group of organizations including the Heritage Foundation, the AFL-CIO, Americans for Tax Reform, and the National Taxpayers Union.
 
“Congress should be giving money back to the taxpayer, not taking more of working Americans hard earned money to spend on growing government programs,” said Rep. Murphy.

“We could have had this agreement last December if the Senate had worked with us instead of knocking off early for a holiday. But those fights are in the past, and while this agreement isn’t perfect, in an uncertain economy  I won’t support a tax increase on Southwestern Pennsylvanian working families,” said Rep. Murphy.

In addition to stopping a pending tax hike, the legislation preserves access to care for seniors on Medicare by blocking a thirty percent cut in reimbursements to doctors under the so-called “sustainable growth rate.” The bill also reforms federally-funded Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and permits states to drug test and place the unemployed into job-training programs. Federal UI benefits will scale down to 73 weeks from a record-high of 99 weeks.

“The legislation gives seniors continued access to their doctors, stops abuse of taxpayer unemployment benefits, and helps hard-working Americans who’ve fallen on tough times get back into the labor market,” said Murphy.

In keeping with House Majority efforts to cut spending, the cost to extend unemployment benefits and Medicare doctor payments were paid with cuts to a special “prevention and wellness” earmark account in the healthcare law, and the auctioning off of wireless frequencies to expand services for cell phone users.

The bill, which passed the Senate today, is expected to soon be signed into law by the President.
 

President’s Budget Released

Framed as a blueprint for "how we can rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded,” this past Monday President Obama released his budget proposal for 2013.

The $3.8 trillion budget incorporates a mix of tax increases and spending cuts to fund government operations and presidential priorities. But according to White House projections, the President’s proposal will add $11 trillion to the national debt by 2022, and increase the nation’s interest payments by 245 percent in ten years. Highlights of the President’s budget proposal include a $1.9 trillion in tax increase (largely impacting families and small businesses earning more than $250,000) and $47 trillion in spending over the next ten years.

After reading the details, Rep. Murphy expressed disappointment that the President’s budget does not more aggressively tackle deficit reduction, cost cutting and tax relief – and that it includes the largest tax hike in American history.

“This blueprint is unsustainable. It includes more spending, more regulations, more deficits, more borrowing and higher taxes,” said Murphy. “With unemployment above 8 percent for the past 36 months, we can’t just afford more of the same.”

Over ten years, this budget would increase the size of the federal government by 53 percent. During that time span, the government would record an average yearly deficit of $728 billion (2012 marks a record fourth consecutive year with a deficit of one trillion dollars). Read the FY13 budget plan here.

Though often not met, the statutory deadline for Congress to complete a budget resolution is April 15th. However, the Senate has not adopted a budget since 2009 – a total of 1,024 days. The House of Representatives will soon begin deliberating a congressional budget plan.
 

Congress Accelerates Probe into Fast and Furious Gunwalking Scandal

It has been over a year since Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in a firefight near the Mexican border in Arizona. Two firearms recovered from the murder scene were traced to a federal program that was supposed to have stopped the flow of weapons to dangerous drug cartels in Mexico. But a congressional investigation has revealed that those responsible for overseeing the program, called “Fast and Furious,” knowingly refused to intercept 2,000 firearms which have ended up in the hands of Mexican criminals.

Over the weekend, Mr. Murphy gave an update on the latest developments in the Fast and Furious investigation during a visit Saturday with members of the Friends of the National Rifle Association in Westmoreland County, and at Firearm Owners Against Crime on Sunday in Whitehall.

As part of congressional oversight responsibilities, the House Government Reform Committee has requested the Department of Justice (DOJ) turn over all internal documents related to the investigation. Of the 80,000 documents that the committee has requested, the Administration has delivered fewer than eight percent of them. With evidence revealing that high-ranking officials at the DOJ condoned the botched gun-running operation and were using the Fast and Furious debacle as a pretext for new gun control, Rep. Murphy has said the Administration should voluntarily remove Attorney General Eric Holder from the post.

“America’s top law enforcement official simply cannot refuse to accept responsibility for his department’s failures,” said Rep. Murphy.

During a House committee hearing two weeks ago, Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) said that if Attorney General Holder cannot give Congress a legitimate reason for withholding documents, Issa’s committee will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings against Holder.

At an event for members of the media in November, Rep. Murphy called for Attorney General Holder’s resignation and he also signed a letter two days later to President Obama asking that he consider the request. Murphy has also signed on as a cosponsor to H. Res 490, which expresses congressional lack of confidence in Holder to carry out his responsibilities.