of those. republicans complained about the price tag. it s now been reduced from $265 billion down to $185 billion. it would mean about $1,500 in the average family s pocket if this tax cut extension goes through. and the surtax on millionaires that you mentioned, it s going to change from 3.25% down to 1.9%. again, a compromise. senate majority leader harry reid said today republicans have to take. republics in congress dismiss it at their peril. i repeat. republicans dismiss this at their peril. the american people are watching what my republic colleague also do. not so subtle political threat there that s why it really appears for the first time perhaps in this whole jobs debate the president has the upper hand over republicans in terms of public opinion in the debate. they finally think they have republics in the corner because they don t want to see this tax cut expire, especially around christmas, shep.
shepard: thanks, trace. new evidence now that the justice department gave bad information to congress about the fast and furious gun sting. that program, of course, was supposed to track guns from the united states to mexico. but investigators say the feds lost track of hundreds of weapons and that two of them turned up at the scene of the murder of u.s. border patrol agent brian terry. william la jeunesse is following this one again for us this afternoon from los angeles. hi, william. well, shepard, that bad information came in the form of a number inache ray wases in inaccuracies back in february namely that the u.s. denied helping send guns to mexican cartels and secondly none of their guns showed up at the murder scene of brian terry. both those statements were false at the time they were made. friday, brewer blamed u.s. attorney dennis burke in arizona, acting ken mel son and the agent in charge bill newell, among others, saying in essence that they lied to him and his office,
unknowingly lied to congress. including the claim that this man was not under investigation when he bought the guns that killed brian terry and, therefore, they couldn t do anything. ll, that is inaccurate. he was a suspect 46 days before he bought those murder weapons. and he could have been arrested sooner several times but was not. justice also released a nasty email burke wrote about senator grassley s investigation. quoting: what is so offensive is that grassley s staff acted as willing stooges for the gun lobby. reckless a little today, shepard, darrell issa says he was including investigation into
the air. the other big thing looming over all of this, is that unemployment benefits are about to run out at the end ever the year for 1.3 million americans. the president saying today congress must extend that as well, shep. shepard: ed henry at the white house tonight. thanks very much. new numbers out suggest americans are back to using credit cards in a big way. the firm first data reports that credit card spending increased in each of the first three quarters of this year. up more than 10.5% in the third quarter. and nearing levels that we saw back before the recession. there was a smaller rise in debit card purchases because while credit cards offer perks like airline miles and cash back, they often come with sky high interest rates. that s money in the bank for the bank. peter barnes from the fox business network is with us and live in washington. is there a consensus about whether this is a good thing for consumers? well, it can be if you are using a credit card to take adv
the u.s. and nato have also developed new supply routes to account for pakistan s increasing proposal to let us use some of the existing ones. shep? shepard: russian prime minister vladimir putin has held a tight grip on country for more than a decade. that could be changing. there is fallout from some embarrassing election results. we have those next. did the feds mislead congress about parts of the botched gun tracking operation fast and furious? at least one official says that s exactly what happened. as more republics call for the attorney general eric holder to resign. a live report straight ahead.