Sen. Patty Murray brings tax-bill campaign to West Seattle tomorrow

Just in – U.S. Senator Patty Murray will be at Husky Deli in The Junction tomorrow afternoon to “join with local business owners to support extending tax cuts for middle class families,” according to a media advisory we just received. The advisory adds, “Senator Murray will be joined by local small business owners and middle-class families who will urge the House of Representatives to pass this bill so middle-class families and small-business owners can get the tax certainty they deserve.” The business owners listed in the news advisory include Husky owner Jack Miller and Merryweather (formerly Leisure) Books owner Mary Clark; the event is scheduled for 1:15 pm. You can read the text of the bill in question, S. 3412, here. This will be Sen. Murray’s third West Seattle visit in less than a year; she was here three months ago to speak during Civics Week at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor), also the site of her October 2011 visit with fellow Sen. Maria Cantwell to discuss job training.

RG August 22, 2012 (12:53 pm)

Welcome back Senator Murray. I wish everyone well for a successful event.
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(PS Thank you for all of the hard work you have done to support our veterans, current service members, and their families. THANK YOU!)

michael August 22, 2012 (12:53 pm)

Patty Murray is part of the problem, not the solution. I hope she and her colleagues are enjoying their vacation.
Congress is embarrassing this nation. Time for a (many) change(s).

Todd August 22, 2012 (2:23 pm)

Patty Murray is a joke, can we get serious about voting in this state? we’ve been on auto-democrat for way to long. Patty and Jim Mcdermott are embarrassing honestly.

Otis and Cooper August 22, 2012 (2:53 pm)

Keeping the existing Bush tax rates for some and raising them for others is not really a tax cut is it?

WSB, your title is a bit disingenuous.

WSB August 22, 2012 (3:02 pm)

The body of the blurb includes direct quotes from their advisory, and attributed as such, but I’ll change the headline to tax-bill, as I don’t think you can dispute it is a bill having to do with taxes – TR

Jim August 22, 2012 (3:44 pm)

How much lower can middle-class tax rates go? Current middle-class average effective rate is 5.6 percent.

She needs to talk numbers, not labels.

Near Alki August 22, 2012 (4:59 pm)

Supercommittee Co-Chair Patty Murray charged with reducing federal waste of taxpayers hard earned (and sparse) money by $1.2 trillion over a 10-year span…”after months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline.” Therefore 1 TRILLION in automatic spending cuts are designed to fall evenly on the military and domestic government programs beginning in 2013.

KD August 22, 2012 (9:14 pm)

NOBODY has fought as hard, for many years for the Veterans of America as Patti Murray has. She had to fight uphill battle of BOTH Bushie Amdministrations to even retain Veteran hospitals, programs etc. if for ANYthing she needs and deserves to stay in as long as possible to keep watch over the cutting of the services of our defenders. You tell Veterans to their face that you want Sen. Murray voted out. Need to see ‘others’ step up!

Skeptic August 23, 2012 (7:57 am)

KD, Patty Murray IS the problem. Congress cannot keep borrowing money at the present rate. It is completely unsustianable. Do you have any idea how much the US Government is already paying annually in interest to service OUR debt? Within a decade we will be spending more on interest than the military. Federal spending is now 25 to 30 percent of the GDP. Patty needs to go now.

resident3 August 23, 2012 (9:02 am)

Is this meeting open to anyone to attend?

NFiorentini August 23, 2012 (9:28 am)

“NOBODY has fought as hard, for many years for the Veterans of America as Patti Murray has.”

My own experience with Ms. Murray’s office has been the opposite.

I was an Infantry soldier form 1988-1993 and I opted for the Montgomery GI Bill and the Army College Fund, which requires enlistees to pay into ($100 per month). After my enlistment, my now ex-wife and I raised two children, including a special needs daughter who required a lot of care and supervision and there was no realistic way for me to justify going to school.

With the downturn in the economy and a divorce, I realized that I needed to get an education to get out of entry-level, low-paying fields. In 2009, I decided to go back to school. I discovered that my college benefits *expired* ten years after the end of my enlistment, 2003.

Having heard that Ms. Murray was an advocate for veterans, I contacted her office for help. The result, after several months, was that the VA was abiding by regulations…there is indeed a ten-year delimiting period for veterans’ education benefits, which the VA had already previously told me.

As far as acquiring a waiver, getting this silly law changed, etc., Ms. Murray’s office was not helpful at all.

I believe that there is something morally wrong with using education benefits to convince young people to enlist, but not tell them that there is also a “use-before” date associated with those benefits. I think that it is also wrong to withdraw money from a young private’s paycheck to pay into something which they could lose forever. When I was an E-2, the amount that I paid into the Army College Fund was roughly 10% of my paycheck.

There are many people out there in similar situations. They left the military and had to prioritize raising families and/or focused on career fields that became less lucrative in a changing economy. They then discovered that their college benefits, the primary enticement tool that recruiters use to sell military service, has expired. It’s a very hopeless feeling.

So when folks tout Ms. Murray as an advocate for veterans, I strongly disagree.

RG August 23, 2012 (11:00 am)

NFiorentini;
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Perhaps you are eligible for VRAP, which is under the VOW that congress passed. I suggest that you take a look at the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs website and get more information.
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I would think that they would have covered MGIB/education during your seperation. I hope you at least got a separation manual, you should have.
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Also, while you are there on the website you can learn about what the committee is doing for our brothers and sisters; education is only a fraction of the issues.

NFiorentini August 23, 2012 (12:30 pm)

RG-I completed the online application for VRAP and we’ll see what happens. I don’t know if I can qualify for VRAP because I’m currently enrolled in classes for my transfer degree, but the degree field is one that is in high demand (a prerequisite), so perhaps this program can help after I transfer to university (UW or Seattle U.), hopefully next Spring.

When politicians say that they are committed to America’s vets, an expiration date on education benefits says otherwise; thus, I believe that it’s a bad law desperately deserving to be changed. For myself, the thousands of vets already out there in a similar situation, and the thousands more surely to follow, I hope that the law is changed.

Thanks again for the VRAP headsup, RG!

RG August 23, 2012 (1:34 pm)

NFiorentini; I remember being totally sleep-deprived in basic training when they came around with the paperwork for the GI Bill. They said sign it now or never. Pressured, I asked what would happen if I put money into it and later decided not to go to college, would I get my money back. The answer was no, so I declined. Fortunately, when the time came, I was able to work my way through college, though I was pretty sleep-deprived from working so much.
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Best of luck to you. Take care.

Near Alki August 23, 2012 (3:44 pm)

NFiorentini and RG…THANK YOU for your service to our Country.

KD August 25, 2012 (12:18 pm)

Like I said, her office was fighting an uphill battle.. maybe your diss appointment was in what Prez at that time controlled. Look at what the slap in the face he did to the beautiful Duwamish Tribe. Clinton had just freshly okay’d their status recognition, baby Bush comes in and wipes them off the slate!! Why? How would it affect him? The Tribe was here before all of us and in 2012 they STILL have to fend for themselves. Bush can send folks off to war, but can’t take care of them coming home. Remember Walter Reed Hospital disgrace? Took Obama Adm. to take notice. Patti Murray cares for Veterans more than other Senators. You might question all the other State Senators.

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