Results tagged “Boxer” from Politics Now

California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein as well as state Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote to President Barack Obama in support of the state's requests for high-speed and intercity rail funding through the Recovery Act.
 
The full text of the letter follows:
 

Sen. Barbara Boxer made the following statement after the 60-39 vote by the United States Senate to begin debate on health care legislation:

"I am pleased that we got the 60 votes needed to move forward and debate this important legislation.

"This is a crucial moment for our country. Providing affordable health care for all of America's families has been an elusive goal since Teddy Roosevelt first proposed it a century ago, but today we have moved a step closer to fulfilling that promise.

"We know that every day another 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance, and that nearly two-thirds of bankruptcies are the result of a health care crisis. It is time for change.

"We have to come together for our nation. I look forward to this debate and to passing legislation that improves health care for Californians and all Americans."

California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring issued the following statement on Saturday about Sen. Barbara Boxer's vote to open up debate about health care legislation in the Senate.

"Barbara Boxer put her liberal ideology first as she brought America one dangerous step closer to government-run health care.

"Her vote paves the way for Harry Reid's and Nancy's Pelosi's health care vision to become reality, together with the higher premiums, higher taxes, Medicare cuts, and taxpayer funded abortions that are all part of this plan.

"The 2009 elections demonstrated that Americans have become increasingly disillusioned with the Democrats' agenda of government bailouts and takeovers with their massive deficits, out of control spending, government owned auto-companies, an energy tax, and now government health care. 

"At a time when California's unemployment rate has hit 12.5%, well above the national average, the job and wage losses the Pelosi-Boxer health care plan will impose come at a time when Californians can least afford it.

"Her vote for more government control in our lives and our health care is just the latest reason we're looking forward to sending a new United States Senator to Washington representing California next year."

The campaign for former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina released the following statement about the Saturday night vote by Sen. Barbara Boxer to open up debate on a historic health-care legislation in the Senate.

"True to form, Barbara Boxer cast a vote tonight that put partisan politics over the interests of the people of California," Carly for California spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said.

"This $2.5 trillion bill creates a government-run healthcare bureaucracy that will increase taxes and not improve the quality of healthcare for Californians.

"It is unfortunate that at a time when Californians are worried about whether or not they will have a job tomorrow, Barbara Boxer continues to support and pursue government policies like this healthcare bill that will increase the tax burden, further weigh on the economy and stifle job creation.

"This is exactly the kind of partisan decision-making we have come to expect from Barbara Boxer over her last 18 years in the U.S. Senate.

"It is time for Barbara Boxer to be held accountable for her lack of results for California and for her to be replaced with a leader like Carly Fiorina who will put California first as a member of the U.S. Senate."

 

Senate Democrats made a big step toward comprehensive health care reform Wednesday night as Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) unveiled a bill that merges the two plans that passed the health and finance committees.

With the House having already passed its own bill, Congress is now closer to achieving health care reform than it has ever been in the six decades that Democrats have pursued it.

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer made the following remarks on the proposed bill:

"This is an important moment for our country.

"If you have health insurance, this bill gives you the security of knowing it will be there for you.

"If you don't have health insurance, you'll be able to get affordable coverage through the exchange, which includes the public option.
 

The Associated Press reports that In the weeks since Carly Fiorina announced her run for a California Senate seat, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive has been working to convince conservatives that she is one of them.

She signed a pledge opposing any increase in income taxes, blasted the spending in the proposed health care overhaul, took up the cause of farmers who want relief from government-imposed water restrictions, and has sent a steady volley of shots aimed at the record of Democrat Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election next year.

But in doing so, Fiorina is walking a political tightrope that has proved the downfall of many Republicans before her.

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has introduced bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Economic Development Administration, which provides development grants to communities with high levels of economic distress. 

The bill, which was introduced with Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, a ranking member of the EPW committee, is named the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2009.

"In these tough economic times, creating good jobs for American workers is our top priority," Boxer said.

"The Economic Development Administration has a great track record of generating good jobs and will benefit communities in California and across America. 

"I am pleased to be working with Senator Inhofe and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to move this important jobs bill forward to bring help to the families that need it most."

The current multi-year authorization for the Economic Development Administration expired on Sept. 30.  The act would authorize EDA for 2009 through 2013 at $500 million per year while making changes to EDA programs to ensure funding reaches the communities most in need, according to a news release from Boxer's office.

The Media New Group's Sacramento Bureau released the following report on California's race for governor.

California's race for governor, Meg Whitman jumped further ahead of her two GOP rivals in a new statewide poll released last week.

And the poll also found something surprising: Men are much more likely to support the former eBay chief than women.

The Media New Group's Sacramento Bureau filed the following report on former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina running for Barbara Boxer's U.S. Senate seat.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina recently launched an uphill campaign to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, aggressively portraying herself as a business-savvy problem solver who would impose fiscal discipline on a profligate Congress.

The 55-year-old Republican and political neophyte -- her once curly blond hair closely cropped and graying after a recently completed round of chemotherapy for breast cancer -- wasted no time taking the fight to Boxer, calling her a do-nothing career politician whose actions have saddled the country with debt and stifled job creation.

Sen. Barbara Boxer last week praised the Senate's passage of legislation to extend unemployment insurance for nearly 2 million Americans who would have otherwise lost their benefits by the end of the year.

The bill will extend benefits by 14 weeks for jobless workers across the country and by 20 weeks in states with unemployment rates higher than 8.5 percent, including California, according to a news release from Boxer's office.

The bill includes a provision that extends homebuyer tax credits to first-time homebuyers as well as other qualified people who already own homes.

The legislation also includes a provision to ease the burden of the economic downturn on struggling businesses by allowing them to use current operating losses to get a refund of prior taxes paid, according to a news release.

"This bill comes at a critical time when millions of Americans and at least 170,000 Californians are at risk of losing their unemployment benefits," Boxer said. "Extending benefits will not only help laid-off workers support their families while they look for jobs, it will also provide a boost to our economy."

Sen. Barbara Boxer on Tuesday stressed the need for bipartisanship during climate change hearings. Top Obama administration officials will head to Capitol Hill today in hopes of making a case for aggressive action on climate change. The hearing is the first of three planned by Boxer, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein on Thursday praised final Senate passage of legislation to strengthen the abilities of federal, state and local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

"Hate crimes are particularly offensive because they are propelled by bias, ignorance and bigotry," Boxer said. "These crimes do not just ... inflict harm on one victim, but they also instill fear in entire communities. And no person -- simply because of who they are -- should ever have to live in fear."

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill in July.

The chairman of the U.S. Senate's environment committee said this week that it's possible Congress will pass a bill aimed at slowing global warming before international talks on a deal to limit climate change in Copenhagen in December.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill, said she is pushing for approval of the legislation with specific targets to limit greenhouse gases, adding that the Obama administration "is very strong on this."

She said congressional approval of the bill is possible before nations meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, in early December to try to agree on a new global climate treaty. But she said if the bill isn't approved by then it doesn't mean the U.S. isn't making progress in tackling global warming.

Boxer and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are co-sponsoring the 800-page Senate bill which calls for a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions beginning in three years, to be tightened annually so that emissions would be 20 percent lower in 2020 than they were in 2005. It would require emissions to be 83 percent lower by 2050.

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer questions Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's criticisms of President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said an energy bill promoted by Democrats could serve as a jobs stimulus because it focuses on using venture capital to fund "clean energy" jobs.

But Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said Democrats would best help the economy by supporting targeted tax relief and dropping "job killers" such as the proposed cap-and-trade approach to climate change and a health care bill that he said would raise taxes on small businesses, according to The Associated Press.

Boxer and Kyl made their comments last week on CNN's "State of the Union."

Their statements were made on the same day that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan predicted the jobless rate will pass 10 percent and stay there for a while, and a second stimulus plan is not needed now.

He spoke favorably of extending unemployment benefits and tax credits for health insurance, options the Obama administration is considering for helping people laid off during the recession.

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said Wednesday that legislators will hold hearings to address toxic drinking water in the nation's schools following an Associated Press probe into the widespread problem.

Boxer, the head of the Senate Environment Committee, called for the hearings to be held in Washington this year after an AP investigation revealed unsafe levels of lead, bacteria and pesticides have surfaced in the water supplies at thousands of schools.

In the past decade, contaminants have been found in drinking fountains and school pipes in all 50 states in small towns and inner cities. But the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied, according to The Associated Press.

Boxer, who chairs the Committee on Environment and Public Works that oversees the Environmental Protection Agency, has seized on the issue as a top priority. She has asked EPA officials to explain what actions they will take to protect school children from polluted water.

Aides for Boxer and Sen. Benjamin Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who leads a Senate subcommittee on water, attended the hour-and-a-half briefing with top EPA officials on Wednesday afternoon.

Among the issues discussed were the agency's inadequate record-keeping. The EPA only has authority to collect drinking water quality data from schools with wells, which represent 8 to 11 percent of the nation's schools.

Boxer aides were scheduled to meet with agency officials in two weeks to discuss the EPA's progress and any new legal authorities needed to protect students from toxic drinking water, said Peter Rafle, communications director for Boxer.

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is facing re-election next year, has added to her fundraising lead by taking in $1.6 million during the latest quarter, giving her $6.3 million in the bank, according to The Associated Press.

Boxer is expected to sail through California's Democratic primary next June. Her main Republican competition so far, state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, raised about $378,000 during the last three months, the campaign reported Friday.

Former Hewlett Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina is considering entering the race for the Republican nomination.

Boxer and DeVore said their respective fundraising shows strong grassroots support.
More than 43,000 people donated to Boxer, while about 14,000 donated to DeVore.

Sen. Barbara Boxer responds to Rush Limbaugh's criticisms of President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sen. Barbara Boxer comments on a bill that she says will bring in billion of dollars from clean energy jobs.