It’s Friday. With apologies to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, the only woman in the Connecticut congressional delegation, the boys are back in town.
U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, a candidate for U.S. Senate, held a press conference in New Britain touting his proposal to make a federal crime of transporting a stolen war memorial across state lines.
“The recent theft of these memorials for scrap metal is sickening,” Murphy said. “With this bill, we’re going to be absolutely clear: to those who would deface or steal our communities’ memorials that honor the service and sacrifice of America’s veterans, we are putting you on notice.”
Apparently, low-lifes who steal bronze plaques memorializing heroism and sacrifice were previously unaware this is a bad thing.
At the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was joined by two economists and food-service employee at Wesleyan to talk about the need to extend the payroll tax cut, one of many issues in Congress that both parties support to varying degrees, but yet cannot bring themselves to pass.
Congress normally would be winding down for the year around now. But thanks to the inability to find a way to extend the tax cut and extend unemployment compensation, the delegation is likely to be back and forth on the shuttle until New Year’s Eve.
Extending unemployment comp and the tax cuts are not especially controversial in blue Connecticut.
Patrick Flaherty, a state DOL economist, said some Connecticut businesses added 70,000 jobs in the past quarter, but cutbacks by others yielded a net increase of just 2,000 jobs. Extending the cut is money in the pockets of workers and businesses, he said.
“The basic idea is that little things mean a lot,” he said.
For someone making $50,000, extending the cut would save them $1,000, Blumenthal said.
This afternoon, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, D-1st District, will drop by Yellow Cab in Bloomfield and Carla’s Pasta in South Windsor to talk about alternative energy. The cab company has a natural gas fueling station, and Carla is powering her new pasta facility with a fuel cell.