Page 330 - Scranton News Today

chicken with the fiscal cliff. today the senate appeared to take action on extending the bush era tax cuts. appeared being the keyword. senator majority leader mitch mcconnell announced he would not filibuster the measure. instead he allowed a straight up-or-down majority wins vote. the republican plan, extend the tax cuts for everyone. and president obamas plan, extend the cuts for 98% of americans, how olds making under $250,000 a year. why would senator mcconnell do such a thing? >>...

Action from the federal government could make whats happening in scranton par for the course in a lot of american cities? >> im very, very concerned about this sense of gridlock in washington, d.c. its unfortunate that in many instances republicans in the house of representatives will not, in any way, shape or form, cooperate with president obama. you mentioned congressman brady. im fortunate here in philadelphia to have people like congressman brady and congressman schwartz in the house who are...

>> we are working very hard to make sure that the estimated 18% of philadelphians hoblingd who could be negatively affected by this voter i.d. law -- a program or proposal, solution looking for a problem. there really is no voter issue or voter fraud issue here. but well deal with this law. were working as a city and a state to make sure that everyones right to vote is protected, that they are not disenfranchised, whether here in philadelphia or across pennsylvania. well spend the next few month...

Of social services, health care reform was compared to the holocaust and signed a bill reducing medicare coverage for thousands of people. in scranton, employees will be paid minimum wage. in san bernardino, you wont have trash collection. >> cities filing for bankruptcy. >> bernanke referred to this yesterday when he talked about a drag on the economy being government shedding jobs or reining in government spending too much. remember at the beginning of the tea party house republican congress, ...

Scranton. >> im in men tenth year right now. >> gretchen: i understand the both of you grew up in this town, so this is near and dear to your heart. youd like to stay in your community. but its a little tough right now. tell me what the change in your salary has been since the mayor slashed all public workers to minimum wage. >> its approximately 70% reduction for us. thats what were seeing right now. >> gretchen: in the parks you were making $24 an hour as a firefighter. now youre making minimu...

>> yeah, thats correct. whats happening is right now the city employees are basically in the middle of a fierce political stalemate in both sides are having disagreements on how to implement certain changes to bring the city forward. so right now the employees are caught in the middle of that. >> gretchen: so here is the statement from that mayor of scranton. its unfortunate that the employees have to bear the brunt of this because the city council wont budge, but i cant print money, i cant spen...

What is this going to do to the family budget? >> well, i mean, we do live pretty frugal the way it is. we cook at home of the i do do a lot of couponing. were still trying to make ends meet, but ultimately, its going to come down to paying the mortgage and buying food and if this continues, the math doesnt add up. well have to choose what can get paid for. >> gretchen: i want to look at the city of scranton and the cash strapped situation. the city has $133,000 in cash, but the city owes $3.4 m...

Have reached out to us and were just going to sit tight and be hopeful that everybody will start to work together and that this will come to resolution fairly quickly. >> gretchen: i know in the meantime, bob, youre still going to work and fighting fires and still making sure the people of scranton are safe. im sure they appreciate that. bob and amy, thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you. >> gretchen: coming up, you may want to skip the trip to the e.r. this month why? because the chan...

we begin with both presidential campaigns getting down and dirty on the low road as the candidates themselves try to stick to the high road. the latest examples, killer tv ad that the obama campaign is using to welcome so-called welcome mitt romney to pennsylvania. and a top romneys surrogates complaint that the president should "learn how to be an american." lets go to our white house correspondent, dan lothian, watching all of this unfold. weve been saying its getting ugly. >> report...

The uniforms that our wonderful olympians are wearing were outsourced to china. this is part of the global economy, but were getting skid skittish about where stuff is made. just take apart your car. thats the nature of the business. i think romney can get in front of that. put it in the context. talk about as i just said before, how ive been impacted of playing by the rules. >> the problem with that is theres a lot of northern united states, scranton to oshkosh, that has lost initially new engl...