Senate Proceeding on Apr 23rd, 2009 :: 6:50:55 to 6:56:19
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6:50:52 to 6:51:12( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: that budget with the i yield. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: thank you so grassley's remarks, and i've been in conference here with folks who have read this budget line by line, and i think it's

6:50:55 to 6:56:19( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Barbara Boxer

6:51:13 to 6:51:35( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: just important for me something as someone who represents the largest state in the union. as i you know, how you look at it. see as it a boon to small business. i don't see one specific tax increase aimed at small business. yes, if an individual is ove over $250,000 a year, all of us

6:51:36 to 6:51:57( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: in that category, the tax will expire. but to say that all small businesses are hit hard, i just think it's an argument that doesn't hold up in my eyes. i have great respect for my friend and i know he's analyzi it in another way, but when i look at the priorities new preside

6:51:58 to 6:52:19( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: democratic congress, what do i see? here are the priorities: investments in energy. that's going to be great for small business. talk to my venture capitalists, i say. they are ready, willing, and able, to make to alternative forms of energy. investments in education, that's also going to be good for our

6:52:20 to 6:52:40( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: people who work in the education field. and health care, we know, madam president, that as we have more insurance out there available for people, there will be many jobs created and many small businesses created around the delivery of health care. so i guess the way you look at this budget, you know, depends

6:52:41 to 6:53:02( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: on your point of view. but clearly i believe our president when he said he had those priorities. and so i view this budget overall as being a boon to small business and being a boon to the american people as we forward with the investments that we'll make that will create many, many jobs. well, madam president, the

6:53:03 to 6:53:23( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: reason i wanted this time in particular was to kind of reargue an old argument that we already had once before that's back before us. senator johanns wants another vote to say we won't use the reconciliation process, which

6:53:24 to 6:53:45( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: for those who don't know what that means, we won't use a process that we only need a majority to win, we're going to need the 60-vote requirement to write and pass global warming legislation. now, i know this is going to passecause it passed before. i think most members feel if we can get 60 votes for this

6:53:46 to 6:54:08( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: climate change legislation, fine. but i have to just say, and i have to say again, after reviewing the number of times that the repubcan party has used reconciliation since 1980, it's been 13 times out of the times that reconciliation has been used.

6:54:09 to 6:54:29( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: and i would say to the people who might be listening to this and try to keep it as simple as possible. reconciliation is used when there's a way to reduce the deficit. that's when it's you want to reduce the deficit, so you say therefore if y're reducing the deficit, we'll do it with just a majority vote instead of the supermajo vote.

6:54:30 to 6:54:50( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: that's the thinking behind it. well, a cap-and-trade program, which many of us support in order to combat global warming, will give us the ability, madam president, to reduce the deficit. we know that because that's what we were told last year as we worked on the boxer-lieberman-warner bill.

6:54:51 to 6:55:11( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: much of the funds consumers to help them pay energy costs, but there was a segment of the funds straight into deficit reduction. but oh, no, my republican friends don't want to look at that. and even though they used this 13 times, they want to prohibit

6:55:12 to 6:55:32( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: the use of reconciliation for global warming legislation. now, i will tell you, as i look back on the number of times that the republicans have reconciliation, in my view, it didn't make life any better for the american people. this is what they used it for. they used it to cut health

6:55:33 to 6:55:53( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: program block grants to our states. they used it to cut medicaid. they used it to cut food stamps. they used it to cut dairy price supports. they used it to cut energy assistance. they used it to cut education they used it to cut impact aid and title 1 compensatory

6:55:54 to 6:56:16( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: education program for disadvantaged children. they used it to cut student loans, and they used it to cut the social security minimum benefit. so our friends on the other side were very happy to use the reconciliation process, which only required 51 votes, to, in

6:56:17 to 6:56:20( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Boxer: my opinion, hurt the american people. did.