Toomey Gun Control Compromise Earns Mixed Reaction

Sen. Pat Toomey, of Zionsville, Lehigh County, was a lead GOP negotiator in gun control legislation talks.

By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent HARRISBURG — Federal efforts to impose more extensive background checks on firearms purchases is having a ripple effect back at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Not only did a large group of Republicans urge U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to reject a compromise on gun laws, but House Democrats are calling for state legislation to close loopholes, regardless of federal decisions. Toomey, who has a local office in Salisbury Township, was a lead GOP negotiator in the U.S. Senate with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va.,regarding the The Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act, which expands background checks on gun purchases. Tuesday, 76 of Toomey’s GOP counterparts in the Pennsylvania House penned a …

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Filibuster Friends: Sens. Pat Toomey and Rand Paul

Lehigh Valley Senator Pat Toomey helped fellow Republican Rand Paul during the Kentucky senator's recent 13-hour filibuster protesting U.S. drone policy.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, who lives in Zionsville, Lehigh County, stepped in to help fellow Republican Rand Paul as the Kentucky senator filibustered for 13 hours (without a bathroom break) last week to delay the nomination of proposed CIA director John Brennan. A YouTube video shows Toomey asking about Paul's request of the Obama administration for clarification on its drone police—"Can (they) kill an American in America with a drone strike?" Paul speculated on what circumstances might prompt the White House to use drones on its own citizens.

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Sen Toomey: Let Obama Make Sequester Cuts

Lehigh Valley Sen. Pat Toomey proposes letting the White House make targeted spending cuts to avoid across-the-board reductions if sequester kicks in Friday.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey wants to let the White House make federal budget cuts required by the impending sequester to "cut in the least disruptive way possible." How Sequester Cuts Would Affect the Nazareth Area Toomey, a Republican from Zionsville, Lehigh County, said the move would help keep air traffic controllers on the job while cutting spending in redundant areas such as the federal government's 15 different financial literacy programs. "I'm not sure the federal government has demonstarted it's qualified to teach financial literacy," Toomey joked in a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. He noted that the sequester will require only about 2 percent of spending to be cut from a government budget that has doubled in size …

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Protesters Rally at Sen. Toomey's Office

Group presents petitions asking Sen. Pat Toomey to "rein in" what it says is wasteful Pentagon spending.

About a dozen protesters gathered at Sen. Pat Toomey’s office in Salisbury Township Tuesday as part of a National Day of Action to demand an end to what they say is wasteful Pentagon spending, organizer Robin Stelly said. Members of Penn Action, LEPOCO and Keystone Progress participated in the “Pull the Pork from the Pentagon: Protect our Priorities. Protect Our Middle Class” event, one of many that was scheduled to take place across the country this week. Stelly said about 15,000 petition signatures from across the state were delivered to Toomey's office. The petitions asked him to "rein in" Pentagon spending and to ensure that no cuts are made to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits. Petitions will be presented to Sen. Bob …

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'Suspicious' Envelope Sent to Senator's Office Prompts Hazmat Response

Salisbury police say the substance examined Monday on 'suspicious' envelope sent to Sen. Pat Toomey's office was not hazardous.

A report of a "suspicious" envelope led police, firefighters and the Lehigh County Special Operations Group to Sen. Pat Toomey's Salisbury Township office on Monday afternoon, Salisbury police said. Authorities who examined a substance on an envelope sent to Toomey's office determined it was not hazardous or harmful, police said. The building at 1150 S. Cedar Crest Blvd. that houses Toomey's office was not evacuated.  Police and the Western Salisbury Township Fire Department were dispatched to the office at 12:50 p.m. to investigate the report of the suspicious envelope. As a safety precaution, according to a police release, the area was secured, and when the Lehigh County Special Operations Group arrived, it removed the envelope. The …

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Assault Weapons Ban? Here’s Where Lehigh Valley Lawmakers Stand

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has change of heart, backs ban, as does Representative-Elect Cartwright.

On the hot-button issue of banning semi-automatic assault weapons, one area congressman-elect has come out swinging and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania has had a change of heart. Casey, who just won a second term, told the Philadelphia Inquirer recently that he was haunted by images from the massacre at Newtown where Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother before murdering 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Previously, he had opposed an assault weapons ban, but since Newtown he had decided he would support one as well as a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. “The power of the weapon, the number of bullets that hit each child, that was so, to me, just so chilling, it haunts me,” Casey said. A Patch …

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Rich Cranium

9:13 am on Monday, March 25, 2013

Wow John was right, pigeon playing chess.   more ›

Toomey: 'Fiscal Cliff' Spending Cuts 'Trivial' Compared to Looming Budget Crisis

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey tells Valley Chamber of Commerce that without reform, current federal deficit spending will lead to much more painful cuts.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey spoke to members of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce at a breakfast gathering Monday at DeSales University and neither the eggs nor the message was sunny side up. The Pennsylvania Republican and well-known deficit hawk addressed the so-called “fiscal cliff” the U.S. government is facing Jan. 1 if Congress and the Obama administration cannot make a deal to avert tax increases and spending cuts that will automatically kick in. But Toomey, whose family lives in Upper Milford Township, said that the across-the-board spending cuts slated for Jan. 1 look mild compared to future actions that will be needed if the nation doesn’t start shrinking the federal deficit and paying down the debt. The fiscal cliff would …

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Seniors Protest Outside Sen. Toomey's Office

On the 47th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans and other groups protested outside Sen. Pat Toomey’s office in Salisbury Township.

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Toomey: Tax Hikes May Be Inevitable

GOP may be forced to accept tax hikes, says Pa. Senator Pat Toomey

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) signaled this week that Republican lawmakers may be left with no choice but to accept a deficit reduction deal that includes new revenues as the country approaches the "fiscal cliff." "It's not clear to me that there may be another way to do it in the future," Toomey said at a Brookings Institution discussion when asked about his party's openness to raising taxes to avoid another fiscal crisis. Toomey, who lives in Zionsville, Lehigh County, began serving as U.S. senator last year. Toomey has an office in Salisbury Township. What do you think of Toomey's statement? Tell us in the comments section below. In January, nearly $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases are scheduled to take effect unless Congress …

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Group Protests Outside Sen. Toomey's Salisbury Office

A handful of protesters takes a stand against Sen. Toomey's votes it says favor the wealthy, hurt middle-class Americans and stunt job growth.

A handful of demonstrators gathered for a second day Tuesday outside U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey's (R-Pa) Salisbury Township office to protest what it says is the senator's lack of action to create jobs, including his vote against President Obama's jobs package and the senator's support for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. Toomey, a freshman senator from the Lehigh Valley, was named in August to serve on the 12-member bipartisan deficit-reduction supercommittee, which has a public hearing today. The protesters are part of the American Dream Movement, a coalition of progressive groups and labor unions that is demonstrating across the country at the offices of other Republican lawmakers who voted against the jobs bill. Jessica Walls-…

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