Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. We see in this bill, brought to us by the Appropriations Committee, and I might say, in a bipartisan fashion--am I right on that--Senator Inouye, working hard with the senior members of the committee, such as my colleague, Senator Murray--we see a bill that is relevant to the problems of today, not an old bill that is offered up by Senator McCain going backward, looking backward, going in reverse. It does not make any sense. If you sit down with your family today to discuss the issues of the day, and you avoid talking about the fact that one child has gotten very ill and requires a lot of changes in your family budget, then your family budget is not going to accommodate for what has happened to your family. America is a family. This is a Government of, by, and for the people. The last point I want to make, Senator Coburn has been on the floor bashing the congressional priorities that are in this bill, and he happened to hit on one of mine. I want to set the record straight. We have a county in our State, Orange County. It is the biggest Republican county in the State. The voters voted, 58 percent, to take a former Marine Corps air station and turn it into what is called a great park. It is going to be a diverse development. In this bill, we have answered the call of the local veterans group that wants to protect the great history of El Toro, and they want to convert an old hangar that was opened in 1943 into a military history museum and a welcoming center for the park. This response to that request will put people to work refurbishing this old Air Force base. So the Senator from Oklahoma has railed against it. He attacks a balloon ride for children. That is not what we are funding. We are funding a military museum.

Mrs. BOXER. Let's listen carefully. I hope we will support our leaders on the Appropriations Committee and vote down the continuing resolution as an option. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I rise to speak about a terrible thing that happened in his home State. I am going to be asking unanimous consent at the appropriate time to move a bill, H.R. 80, the Captive Primate Safety Act. I will preface it first by saying to my friend, Senator Lieberman, that in his State there was a horrific attack.

Mrs. BOXER. Yes. It was an attack by a nonhuman primate--a chimpanzee in this case--that was a household pet, against a woman. Without going into the terrible details, I think the whole country was shocked at what occurred there. Many of us have been saying for a long time that we need to fix this problem. In 1978, importing nonhuman primates to the U.S. for pet trade was banned by the CDC in regulations. But now you can still trade these primates in the pet trade and sell them for use as pets. We say it is time to end that. I know Senator Coburn is going to object to our moving this bill which was passed by the House quickly and in a bipartisan way with just a handful of ``no'' votes. Can't we come together on this? The fact is, our bill says we are going to ban pet trading of these nonhuman primates, and we are going to get this done one way or another. We will not get it done today because Senator Coburn will object for his reasons. I believe it is important to state that our bill--and this is a Boxer-Vitter bill--has no impact on trade or transportation of animals for zoos or scientific research facilities or other federally licensed and regulated entities. All we are saying is that it is dangerous to keep as a pet a nonhuman primate. We saw this in Connecticut, but that was not the only time. There have been many examples. When we get this done, we will list those. We have been trying to get this passed for a long time. Senator Coburn objected. We will get around it at some point in time. Primates can harbor many infectious diseases that can readily jump from species to humans. As a result, the CDC, back in 1975, said: No, no importation of those nonhuman primates unless it is for medical reasons or a zoo or to a Federal body that is going to oversee it. Listen to how many people have been injured. More than 150 people. How about children? Do you care about children? Forty children were injured by these nonhuman primates between 1995 and 2009. Nineteen States, including my own, have prohibited these animals as pets. Fourteen States restrict or partially ban their use as pets because many of these animals move in interstate commerce. Federal legislation is needed. You would think this is a no-brainer-- you would think. Who supports this legislation? Well, the House of Representatives just passed it overwhelmingly on suspension of the rules. It wasn't even a problem over there. The Humane Society of the United States supports it. The American Veterinary Medical Association supports it. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums supports it. The Jane Goodall Institute supports it. The Wildlife Conservation Society supports it. That is a very small portion. I cannot believe I actually had to come out here today. With all due respect to my friend, he will have his reasons, but, honestly, I hoped that once in a while we could work together on a bill that is so obvious in its need. We know these nonhuman primates have not been bred and domesticated over thousands of years like dogs or cats. It is a whole different world there. That is why the veterinarians support us. Nobody loves pets more than the Humane Society. Nobody loves pets more, but they know what can happen. A woman got her face ripped off. So I am not going to go into the details of the attack at this time, but if I have to I will to get the votes of colleagues. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 80, the Captive Primate Safety Act, which was received from the House; and, further, that the bill be read the third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have 5 minutes following my friend from Oklahoma, and then I ask unanimous consent that Senator Sanders have 15 minutes on his subject.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, while my friend was speaking, I went back to my staff because this is not the first time we have had a problem on it. We had it in the big Coburn package of bills, and I remember my friend at that time made it the centerpiece of his objection. My staff has talked with his staff over and over again. The Republican staff on my committee, from where this bill came, has talked to the Senator over and over again. I am happy to sit down with my friend. Maybe we can work this out. But here is the point. My friend says that what happened to this woman is unfortunate. No, what happened to this woman is a tragedy. We do not go in and take away pets from anybody, if you read this bill. If you have a pet, you have a pet as long as you are living within the laws of your State. We ban the interstate trade because that is how this thing is moving forward. People get these pets, and they sell them across State lines. That is how we ban a lot of bad in this country. It is the way we have done it for a long time. I just want to say to my friend, I didn't know this rose to the level where he and I should speak. I am delighted to sit down and talk with him. But the fact is, our staffs have been working with his staff for a very long time on this issue. Senator Vitter's staff and Senator Inhofe's staff have been working with the Senator's staff to try to get a breakthrough. I hope the two of us can sit down, and maybe without our staffs-- maybe the problem is our staffs. I have a great staff. I am sure Senator Coburn does too. But maybe there is something that got in the way of their being able to resolve it. But I think he and I should sit down, and I will try to see if I can move this again, maybe with some kind of way we can fix it that doesn't give the Senator heartburn. Honest to God, I say to my friend, we have made sure nobody is going to be invaded by a police force and lose their pet. That is not in here. Only if you try to move it across State lines, you wouldn't be allowed to sell your pet so that pet can injure somebody. Nobody is taking away anybody's pets. Nobody is stopping the zoos from getting these pets. Nobody is stopping research facilities from getting these pets. That is why we have such strong support for this legislation. I am not a person who says my way or the highway, believe me. I have been here too long. I have gotten too many bills passed. I will sit down with my friend. He is right that 90-some people on the other side voted no, but 300-some people voted aye. So we must have done something right here when we got over 300 votes in a body that has a hard time getting bipartisanship. I say what we did right is we have a balanced bill. We allow these pets to be used for that which helps humanity, but we will, in effect, stop the interstate trade, the profitable pet trade which is leading us into a situation where we have seen so many injuries of children--40 children, about 100 adults injured between 1995 and 2009. I am encouraged that my friend wants to work with me. I am going to go right over there as soon as I finish these remarks and figure out a way we can work on this issue because we do not want to wake up another day and read about somebody having an injury that is so horrific and horrible that they will never have a normal life when it is in our power to do what is right here and move forward. I will not renew my request, but I will another day at a date, hopefully, when I have the support of my friend. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the memory of a dedicated public servant, SGT Greg Hernandez of the Tulare County Sheriff's Department. Sergeant Hernandez's life was tragically cut short on February 6, 2009, as a result of injuries from a vehicle accident that occurred while he was on duty. Sergeant Hernandez dutifully served the citizens and communities for 24 years as a valued member of the Tulare County Sheriff's Department. Sergeant Hernandez demonstrated a passion for law enforcement and commitment to helping others, qualities that earned him the respect of his colleagues at the Tulare County Sheriff's Department. Sergeant Hernandez shall always be remembered for his devotion to serving the public and his friendly nature. Sergeant Hernandez is survived by his mother Rosa Hernandez of Farmersville and his daughter Kristina Marie Hernandez of Porterville. When he was not spending time with his family and friends, Sergeant Hernandez was a devoted sportsman who enjoyed fishing, softball, and golf. Sergeant Hernandez served the county of Tulare with honor and distinction, and fulfilled his oath as an officer of the law. His selfless contributions and dedication to law enforcement are greatly appreciated and will serve as an example of his legacy. We shall always be grateful for Sergeant Hernandez's service and the sacrifices he made while serving and protecting the people of Tulare County.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, what is the current order?

Mrs. BOXER. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I am going to speak about Hilda Solis, someone I know very well, and someone I am very proud of. I could not help but hear the comments of Senator Sessions about this borrowing, and I do not know where Senator Sessions has been over the past 8 years, when we saw the debt go from $5 trillion to $10 trillion. And that was George Bush's program, supported by the Republicans. It went to Iraq. It went to tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. All of a sudden, there is this newfound worry because we believe it is time the American people, who work for a living and who are struggling, get a hand out of this recession. As we will hear tonight from our new President, he understands that there is a time to stimulate this economy and then, of course, in the long term, as we Democrats did under Bill Clinton, get back to a balanced budget.

Mrs. BOXER. In a moment. We did it. We did it without one Republican vote. We passed the Clinton budget. I have the names of the Senators. I was fortunate enough to have a good researcher give me those. What they said when we passed that budget--we passed that budget under Bill Clinton because Al Gore, the Vice President, broke a tie. We couldn't get one Republican vote. And here is what they said, to a person: This budget is going to set us on the course of a recession. This budget is going to set us on the course of deficit spending. Guess what. They couldn't have been more wrong. That budget set us off on a course of the best economy known to humankind in peacetime--23 million new jobs and a balanced budget with a surplus. I remember looking at my children--because the debt was on the way down so fast at that time under Bill Clinton and the Democrats--and I said: What are we going to do? We can't buy Treasury bonds. There won't be any more. We won't have to borrow anymore. So it is extraordinary to me that my colleagues come up here now and they say: We can't spend this money. Yes, it is true people are hurting. My State has over 9 percent unemployment. There are pockets, I say to my friends, of 18 percent unemployment. I think the American people know there are no panaceas here. They know it is going to be hard. They know we may make mistakes, but they also know this: They want us to present hope to them--hope. Frankly, I wish to be associated with hope, not nope: Nope, we can't do this; nope, we can't do that; nope, it would be better not to do this. The American people--and I see what they are saying to people who ask them--are patient, and they know it is going to take some time. Yes, we may have to inject some funds into this economy because $1 trillion was lost out of this economy due to the recession. So yes, we are, in fact, injecting hope into this economy. We will pay it back. We will get back onto a balanced budget. We will do it in time, and we will do it responsibly. I am happy to yield to my friend without losing my right to the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I will take that as a question: Do I support President Obama's commitment to wrap his arms around the deficit and to do it with us, Republicans and Democrats? You bet I do, because I did it before under Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, then, we couldn't get one Republican vote. I praise my friend for showing the deficits under George Bush. I do. But I have to simply say--and this is a fact, this is a proven fact--that we didn't hear much from that side of the aisle when we had an open checkbook for Iraq. In fact, we didn't hear anything. They kept it open. We didn't hear much when they kept giving tax breaks to people who earn over $1 million, and that is what got us into this fix. Right now, as a temporary measure, yes, we are going to have to spend some. As I know President Obama will lay out tonight, he wants to jolt and jump-start this economy. We are going to do it. I am so proud we were able to reach across party lines in this Senate and get three Republicans to join us. I am so pleased that in my home State, we got six Republicans to join the Democrats and pass a budget there because when I went home--I went to Sacramento, our capital, and they were in deadlock. I think one of the things that helped me and others make the case was that we had to put party aside. We had to put ideology aside. We had to put egos aside. We did it with the stimulus bill because we only had three options there and they only had three options for the budget in California. One option is do nothing and be the party of nope instead of the party of hope. Do nothing. Do nothing. Well, when you do nothing, that is not a passive act. Doing nothing is, it seems to me, a hostile act. It is a hostile act on the working families of this country and of my State. So doing nothing, I believe, is irresponsible. Now, the other thing one could say in light of the stimulus or a budget one doesn't like is: I want to do it my way. My way or the highway. Here is my bill. I have written it. It is great. I have the perfect solution. Well, clearly, I am going to be able to write the perfect bill for me. My friend from Delaware can write the perfect bill for him. My friend from Georgia, I know he can write the perfect bill for Georgia. They love him there, and he would reflect everything they want. But at the end of the day, it doesn't work that way. That is also saying nope. So the only answer, it seems to me--the only answer--is for us to compromise. That is what we did on the stimulus. That is what my State Republicans did, six of them. By the way, they got censured by the party in my State. I just can't believe it. I just can't believe it. There was anger because they said they would never raise taxes and they signed a pledge. Well, you have to understand we are in uncharted waters with this downturn. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs lost every month. We all want to keep our pledges, but once in a while you have to look inside yourself and say: How can I help the people of my State? So I say to those Republicans here who helped us, I say to the Republicans at home in the State of California who helped us: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Because there are moments when we do have to take a risk in life for the greater good. I am looking forward to hearing the President tonight because I think what he is going to do--because I have watched him--he is going to give us an honest assessment of where we are as a nation. He is not going to sugarcoat where we are. He is going to tell it like it is, but then he is going to offer hope. He has a lot to say on that because we did get that first piece of the economic recovery bill through, the stimulus bill--very important. I think he is going to show us through the housing plan he has that it is going to help ordinary people. My friend from Georgia is here, and he worked so hard to get a tax credit in the stimulus bill for new home purchases. These are the kinds of things we need to embrace, regardless of political party. I certainly embrace it. Then he will talk about the banks. Speaking just for myself, I don't want to nationalize a bank. I really do not. If you go back to the Great Depression--I am reading a good book called ``The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days.'' There was a big move not by the President but by a lot of people to nationalize the banks, and FDR said: No, we shouldn't be running the banks. So I am very hopeful that we will be able to do some things by converting preferred stock to common stock, to help get these banks on their feet and doing what they need to do, which is to lend. I have spent some time talking about our current situation, and needless to say, what we have seen in the past 8 years or so--and especially the past few years--is we have seen a real decline in the quality of life of our working families. Their voices have not been heard enough. That creates an imbalance in our lives. Everybody talks about the powerful unions. The unions that represent working men and women are representing fewer and fewer, and the voices of working men and women have gotten softer and softer. I think President Obama understands this, and he has given us a voice for working men and women in selecting Congresswoman Hilda Solis to be the Secretary of Labor. I wish to say to my friends who may not know Hilda as I know her--she is from my State and is an ally and a friend--she is one of the best people you will ever meet. She is one of the most humble people you are ever going to meet. She is one of the most intelligent people. She has knowledge of politics and how to get things done. She knows how to reach out to people who don't agree with her. She has a strong understanding of the struggles of working families because she has seen it in her district in California. Jobs lost since the beginning of the recession in December of 2007: 3.6 million. Jobs lost in the last 3 months: 1.8 million. The nationwide unemployment rate is at 7.6 percent. In my State, it is 9.3 percent. Long-term unemployed Americans: 2.6 million. That is why the stimulus was so important--to give them a little extra help getting through this nightmare. Underemployed Americans--that means Americans who are working at jobs for which they are overqualified--7.8 million Americans are working at jobs for which they are overqualified. So we can see this is not a recession that is just hitting a few pockets of America; it is hitting hard and it is hitting deep. Throughout her entire career, Congresswoman Solis has been a forceful advocate for working men and women in California and throughout the Nation. She was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley in southern California. She was instilled with the values of hard work. Her father emigrated from Mexico, and he worked as a Teamsters shop steward. Her mother came to the United States from Nicaragua and worked at a local factory. She was the very first Latina elected to the California State senate. She led efforts there to pass a much needed increase in California's minimum wage. I can tell my colleagues this because I worked closely with her on this issue. In the 1990s, when she discovered that toxic sites were disproportionately located near minority and low-income neighborhoods, she wrote an environmental justice law to guarantee protections for those communities. For her dedication to this cause, she became the first woman ever honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. She was elected to represent California's 32nd congressional district in the year 2000. I have worked with her very closely on many environmental issues, on worker issues, and it is a delight to work with her. I have worked with her on veterans issues. Before she got tapped to be Secretary of Labor, Hilda and I sat next to each other on the plane, and she was telling me about an event she had where she holds a fair for the veterans in her community, in her district, and she brings together all of the various entities in the Federal Government that could help those veterans. This is a woman with a heart of gold. So I am confident that Hilda Solis will turn the many challenges we face into new opportunities for the American people. As Secretary, she will continue to promote policies that will invigorate our economy, protect our jobs, retrain our workforce. She will work for a sustainable energy future, which is going to mean lots of jobs and new technologies. She will ensure safe working conditions. She will enforce fairly the wage and hour laws we have on the books. We don't need more laws on the books; we have laws on the books for wage and hour. She will protect against worker discrimination. She will strengthen the middle class. Yet I think in her way she will make the case that people in the workplace should have a right to be represented. She will argue that. She also plans to improve skills development and job search assistance for unemployed workers and create new career opportunities for at-risk youth and our military heroes, as I mentioned. I am so thrilled she was picked for this job. I was very surprised because I had no clue President Obama was going to tap her. But when he did, I said to my family that this is a great choice. I think as Members of the Senate from both sides of the aisle get to know Hilda, they will soon trust Hilda. They will know they can talk to her about any subject, that she will listen, and that she will understand their point of view. After all, this is a woman who has been in elected office and she understands, as we all do, that there are differing viewpoints. She is not going to come in there and say: It is my way or the highway, Senator, so don't bother explaining to me. She will work with Senators. I know it because I have worked with her. If anybody needed a personal recommendation for Hilda Solis today, I hope they will trust me because you know me, and I don't stand up for every nominee, but I am so proud to stand for this one. I urge each and every one of my colleagues--Republicans, Democrats, Independents--to please support her nomination. I thank my friend from Georgia, who I know has been waiting. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Projects in economically distressed communities are a high priority in this legislation and those projects should be addressed on an expeditious basis under applicable Federal requirements.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, in accordance with rule XXVI(2) of the Standing Rules of the Senate, Senator Isakson and I ask, unanimous consent that the Rules of Procedure of the Select Committee on Ethics, which were adopted February 23, 1978, and revised November 1999, be printed in the Congressional Record for the 111th Congress. The committee procedural rules for the 111th Congress are identical to the procedural rules adopted by the committee for the 110th Congress.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of the Committee on Environment and Public Works Rules of Procedure.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I would like to take this time to bring us up-to-date on where we stand with this recession, nationally and in my home State, and also to alert the American people to something. In 1993, when Bill Clinton got elected, this country was in a lot of trouble. We had terrible deficits--we had a terrible trade deficit, we had debt. President Clinton and the Democratic Congress came in, and we said we have to get our country back on track. The President put together a budget. I wish to remind people that budget did not get one Republican vote. I wish to read to you what Senator Lott, on August 6, 1993, said about that Clinton budget. As we all know, that Clinton budget got us on the path of deficit reduction and an actual surplus in our fiscal year budget. It set us on the path of debt reduction. As a matter of fact, we were far along on that path. We expected to have no debt whatsoever. When George Bush got in office, the Republicans took over and the deficits soared and the debt soared. I wish to read what Senator Lott said in 1993. Remember, it was a very similar situation in terms of a budgetary crisis, a fiscal crisis. When Bill Clinton's budget passed--and we helped him get it passed--we set off on a path of economic recovery that was unmatched. Listen to this. This is Senator Trent Lott, August 6, 1993, in opposition to the Democrats' economic plan: This is a pork alert: Pork alert. This bill is 1,800 pages. We will not know until next April 15, probably, all the stuff that's in here. Are we talking about a little money? . . . No, we are talking about big sums. He says: So when you stand up and say Republicans have not been involved, let me assure you, we should have been involved. We would have liked to have been involved. But we would like to concentrate on spending cuts at first. And then talk about other things like economic growth incentive activities, that we would like to see considered in this process. The Republicans who have been in charge for a very long time have been the party of ``no'': Do it my way or it is the highway. Only I can write the perfect bill. I have said, and I say this respectfully to my friends, I could write a perfect bill--for me. I can assure you the people of California would like my bill better than the bill that is before us. Each of us can stand and write the perfect bill. So we have a choice. We can allow this new President to have the opportunity to do what he said he would do during the campaign, which is to ensure that this National Government becomes part of the solution. Believe me, I defend my Republican friends' right to say no, no, no. They have every right to do it. They have absolutely every right to do it. What I feel a little sad about is they feel they have to filibuster; each and every time we have to get 60 votes--60 votes--60 votes--because they know very much it becomes a hardship. But that is what they are doing. I ask unanimous consent to have this and another quote printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. In 1993, when they opposed the Democrats' economic plan, back then, that plan that set us off on economic recovery and economic prosperity, they said almost the same exact words: We are not involved, it is pork, it is this, it is that, it is a big bill. They held up the bill. It is all the same. It is not the GOP; it is the SOP, the ``same old party.'' Right now we can't be the same old party. Democrats can't be the same old party, Republicans can't be the same old party. We need to join together. I hope more of my colleagues on the other side will join us. I thank the three who have, and I look forward to working with them as we move out into the future. Exhibit 1 1993 Quotes Last, the American people should know unequivocally this plan does not reduce our long-term deficit. What I am suggesting is, if you like these taxes, wait around because the deficit starts back up in 1998 even with all of these taxes and more will be needed. And I ask where are we going to get the spending cuts and the money to bring it under control? My guess is more taxes year after year.--Senator Packwood August 6, 1993 This is a pork alert: Pork alert. This bill is 1,800 pages. We will not know until next April 15, probably, all the stuff that has been slid in here. Are we talking about, oh, just a little bit of money? A few million here and there? No; we are talking about big sums. So when you stand up and say the Republicans have not been involved, let me assure you, we should have been involved. We would have liked to have been involved. But we would like to concentrate on spending cuts at first. And then we can talk about other things, like economic growth incentives, that we would like to see considered in this process.--Senator Lott August 6, 1993

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Will my friend yield for a few questions?

Mrs. BOXER. I was thinking the other day to when we had another difficult crisis of confidence in the economy in 1993, when Bill Clinton was elected and we had deficits as far as the eye could see and debt as far as the eye could see. Things were slowing. We were in difficulty. A new President came forward, Bill Clinton, and we had the Congress, the Democrats did. We passed a budget. We did it without one Republican vote. Thank goodness here we have three. We have the 60-vote supermajority Republicans are insisting upon. If you remember, it was Senator Bob Kerrey who had to think long and hard and decided to support that. I wonder if my friend remembers because I just looked up some of the comments made by the Republicans. I read into the Record one of them by Trent Lott. He said: We have not been involved in this. This is going to be a disaster. This is awful. They said: No. I wonder if my friend knows about the Clinton economic record: 23 million new jobs created during the 8 years of the Clinton Presidency; the largest surplus in history was left behind by President Clinton, over $230 billion; unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades; there was the lowest overall poverty and child poverty rate since the 1970s. Does my friend remember that battle and how we Democrats had to do it all by ourselves?

Mrs. BOXER. I think my friend is so eloquent as usual. The point I am trying to make is, we faced a serious economic problem in 1993, when a Democratic President took over. You are right. Things are way worse, and it is a different circumstance. But the same thing happened then. We had Senate leadership, Senator Lott saying, on August 6, 1993: This is a pork alert, pork alert. It is 1,800 pages. We are talking about big sums. He said: We have to concentrate on spending cuts first. They predicted gloom and doom. What happened was the greatest economic recovery in modern history because we took a chance. We followed the wisdom of many economists at the time. We know now that if the Republicans would just join with us, we can get this economy moving in the right direction. A trillion dollars has been taken out of the economy due to lost productivity. Who is going to put it back? The banks won't. We are the only ones who can put it back. It is not going to be a trillion. It is probably under $800 billion. But it is the way to go forward. I agree with my friend. I am so glad President Obama is out there. Doesn't he agree--and this is my last question. Then I will do a presentation about what is happening in my State--that it is important for the President to get out there, not to a group of people who have been prescreened, who are all his admirers, but actually to get there with all these people who are troubled? They are worried. They have hope and faith, but they are scared. It gives him a reality check rather than listening to what goes on around here because I am afraid the GOP, the Grand Old Party, has turned into the same old party, the same old negativity we heard in 1993 when we had another Democratic President get us on the right road to an amazing recovery. It is sort of the same old thing. I wonder how my friend feels about our President getting out among the people.

Mrs. BOXER. What is the order now?

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I want to pick up on where I left off. This is the same old, same old fight again. I looked back for some more quotes on the Clinton economic plan which led to 23 million new jobs, the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. I read what Senator Lott from the other side said about it. Here are other Senators: We are going to pile up more debt. We are going to cost jobs. That was Senator Conrad Burns. What happened? We went into surplus, and we created 23 million new jobs. Orrin Hatch: Make no mistake, these higher rates will cost jobs. That was because there were some tax hikes on the wealthiest few. It went on and on. This is Phil Gramm, the guru of the other side: I want to predict here tonight that if we adopt this bill the American economy is going to get weaker and not stronger, the deficit four years from today will be higher than it is today and not lower. . . . He was wrong. This is no longer an academic debate. The Republicans, in 1993, said the same things about the Clinton plan they are saying about the Obama plan. Phil Gramm again: I believe that hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their jobs as a result of this program. I believe that Bill Clinton will be one of those people. Well, Bill Clinton got reelected. Twenty-three million new jobs were created. He left behind the largest surplus in history. Unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades. We had the lowest overall poverty and child poverty rates since the 1970s. Charles Grassley, my colleague: I really do not think it takes a rocket scientist to know this bill will cost jobs. That is what he said of the Clinton plan that created 23 million new jobs. Connie Mack from Florida, from the other side of the aisle: This bill will cost America jobs, no doubt about it. Senator William Roth, from the other side: It will flatten the economy. I am concerned about what it will do to our families. . . . Well, what did it do to our families? The Clinton plan, with the Democratic support, created 23 million new jobs, left behind the highest surplus in history, unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades, and we had the longest peacetime expansion of economic expansion in history. Rick Santorum, from the other side of the aisle: . . . bad policy. Let's do something that creates jobs that doesn't feed the monster of government. It goes on and on, and later today I will read some more into the Record. So as I was listening to the debate yesterday and the day before and the day before--it has been good--I had a sense of deja vu. I heard this before. I turned to my staff and I said: Can you go and find out what the Republicans said about Bill Clinton's economic plan that was so successful? We did not get one Republican vote. Thank God we are getting three Republican votes for this plan because they have set a 60-vote filibuster-proof vote. That is what we need, which is a shame, but that is the way it is. So what I would like to do today, again, is make the point that Republicans and Democrats have a philosophical disagreement. They had it back in 1993. We tested who was right and who was wrong. We put in the Clinton plan. We got a great economic recovery. We got surpluses as far as the eye could see. We had the debt going totally down. When the Republicans took over, the deficits soared, the debt doubled, and we have now on the backs of the American people--every man, woman, and child--$17,000 more in debt as a result of an open checkbook for Iraq and tax cuts to the millionaires and the billionaires who never needed it anyway. That is a fact. It has been proven. There is no debate over it. I have what the Republicans said back then, and I know what happened to the economy. So if you are looking for past history to guide what we do today, it is time to step to the plate and support President Obama. He has learned from history. He has looked at what happened. He understands. So I want to take us now to where we are in this recession: 3.6 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession. I want people to think about 3,600,000 people. Think about your own community, how many people live in that community. Think about your own State, how many people live in that State. Think about what it means to have these many people unemployed, and think about what it means for their families, for their spouses, for their children, in the face of this. Doing nothing is not a passive act. It is a hostile act. It is a hostile act because doing nothing says: We like the status quo. We don't care about this. Let it just play out. I say that is unacceptable. Now, we can look at what is happening month by month: almost 600,000 jobs lost in January; 524,000 in December; 533,000 in November. This is what is happening on the ground today. The other day, I placed into the Record some of the layoffs that are going on in my State--everything from Macy's, to Starbucks, to little mom-and-pops, to big companies, to high-tech, all over California. We have 37 million people, and, as they say in California, when we get a cold, everybody else sneezes because we have such an impact. We would be about the seventh largest economy in the world. This is another bad picture, I show you in the Chamber--unemployment rates rising: 6.7 percent in November; December, 7.2 percent; January, 7.6 percent. In my home State, it is now 9.3 percent unemployment. And there are some communities that have 15 percent unemployment. That is getting closer to a depression. We have a problem, and we cannot afford stall tactics around here and 60-vote supermajorities. We cannot afford partisanship. We need cooperation because the longer we wait to put those dollars into our communities, the more job losses we are going to see. Total unemployed Americans: 11.6 million. That is unemployed Americans at the time. Think about that. Think about your community. Think about your State. Think about what 11.6 million unemployed Americans means. There are 1.6 million unemployed Californians. The number of long-term unemployed--they have been looking and looking and cannot find work--is 2.6 million. By the way, there are 7.8 million underemployed Americans, meaning people who get part-time work who want full-time work--so many people who have higher skills that are not being put to good use. Underemployment is a problem. It is a serious problem. They say pictures speak a thousand words. I show you a picture of a homeless man in Bakersfield. My local officials in Bakersfield, CA, have noticed a rise in the number of homeless individuals. These are individuals without shelter. As shown in this picture, here is one hiding his face--hiding his face. It is a sad thing, and we are seeing more of it across our Nation. Job seekers in search of employment at a Goodwill Industries career center in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles man who lost his job at a computer disposal facility was forced to place his children into foster care. Imagine all of us having to place our children into foster care because we could not find another job to support our family. He said: You've got to stay positive, but the economy is failing. I'll take anything. He visited this Los Angeles Goodwill career center to learn about job opportunities. The other day, I held up a picture from Florida where thousands of people came for 35 firefighter jobs, and they had to have the police come out, not that anyone was acting out, but they just needed order-- for 35 firefighter jobs. In Fresno, kids are having a good time, but where are they having a good time? In a pool at a home that has been foreclosed upon. They are creating backyard skateboard arenas. The skaters found the addresses of foreclosed homes on the Internet or through friends who work in real estate, and these young people came there to this foreclosed home. This home was once teeming with a family. Your home is your castle. It is a dream being lost. If we do not pass this first leg of our economic recovery package, this will continue. Because it is one thing to lose your home because your interest rate got out of reach--that is a terrible thing--it is worse when you lose your home because you lost your job. So this is not a good picture. This is an area in our State that was ready for development in the city of Rio Vista in eastern Solano County. The city of Rio Vista is nearing bankruptcy, its problems coming from plummeting property and sales taxes, a lack of funds coming from the State. The city has laid off employees. They have left open full-time positions. They have frozen salaries. They have cut city programs. And they have closed city hall 1 day a week. This is a small city, and the reverberations are many. The San Fernando Valley Career Center--this is a picture of a gentleman who is desperately looking for work. This is what he says: I don't have a single cent in my pocket. He has been unemployed since September. He visited this career center to seek job opportunities. People are trying desperately to find work. It is easy to stand up here and say: I don't like the bill. I don't like page 47. I don't like paragraph 2 and paragraph 8. The bottom line is, you can either have the perfect bill, no bill, or the compromise. Again, yesterday we passed the compromise, and we need to get this done. This breaks my heart. I know all of us feel this way when we see our constituents who are hard workers, who cherish work, who want the pride of a job, having this circumstance. There is a story from North Hollywood: a mother of five laid off in November 2007, spending hours each day looking for work. She said: This is the longest I've been unemployed. I feel stressed out. I have bills piling up. So we are at the crossroads. President Obama is getting out to this country. He is going to places like this, where people are desperate. This is ``one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'' We are not going to live up to that ideal if we do not act now. My friends on the other side of the aisle, believe me, they had their turn. They had 8 years of their turn. They took a surplus, they turned it into deficit. They took debt that was on the way out and expanded it by double, laying on the backs of every man, woman, and child another $17,000 of debt. They had their chance. This is the worst economy we have seen since the Great Depression. They had their chance. They had an open checkbook for Iraq and they had an open checkbook for their very wealthy friends, and it did not work. When we were in charge--we are not perfect, God knows, that is for sure--we got this economy back on track. We know what it takes. We have to stimulate this economy. That is the first leg. When it gets on its feet, we will wrap our hands around these deficits and get them under control. We will make sure our financial system has sensible regulation again so people have confidence in it. We know what we are doing. It is true that the problems are vast, but this country did go through the Great Depression. And what did we see? When we put people to work, it restored their faith and confidence. When we mobilized for a war, we mobilized the productivity of people. We do not want to mobilize for war now, but we do want to mobilize for energy independence by turning to clean energy and creating technologies we can export. We know we have to take care of the housing crisis. We know we have to get ahead of it. We know we have to help people stay in their homes. This next tranche of the TARP funds that Timothy Geithner talked about--the money is already there--$50 billion will be used for that, and I hope even more. So we know what we are doing. We are not standing up here with a plan that, as President Obama said, is plucked out of the air. It is not plucked out of the air. He spoke to economists--Democratic economists, Republican economists, and those all over the map--and the vast majority say we need to stimulate this economy, get money to the cities, get money to the counties, get money to the States, get money to the private sector, rebuild our physical infrastructure, our highways, our bridges. These are things we need to do anyway--these are things we need to do anyway. We need to get funds to law enforcement so we are not laying off police officers but hiring them. We need to get funds to our schools so we are not laying off teachers, but we are hiring them. We need to have tax breaks in here to encourage investments in alternative clean energy so we can make our government buildings energy efficient. These are all things that save money, create jobs, and we have to do them anyway. So as President Obama has said, we didn't expect this kind of an economic crisis, but it is upon us. It is upon us. Listen to my friends on the other side and go back to 1993. They are saying the same things. They were the party of ``no'' then; they are the party of ``no'' now. No, no, no, no, no; don't do it. It is not going to work; it is going to hurt the economy; it will lead to a recession; it will increase the debt. All the things they are saying now they said then. They always have a reason to say no. I wish to close by saying to the three Republican colleagues of mine who came forward: Thank you again. I have said it before. It takes courage. It is hard to go against the caucus you sit in every day. It is hard. I have had to do it on a couple of things. It is very unpleasant. I remember being 1 of 11 people who went a different way on one occasion on a gay rights issue. It was very hard. I remember being 1 of 23 who voted against the Iraq war. It was popular then. It was very hard. I remember voting against the Medicare prescription drug benefit because I thought it would lead to major problems with people getting kicked off their insurance when they needed their medicines the most. It also stopped Medicare from negotiating. It didn't allow them to negotiate for lower prices, and I felt the pharmaceutical companies were going to make a bundle and the people wouldn't get the benefits. I was in the minority. So I know how it feels to be in the minority. I know how it feels to vote differently than most of your colleagues. It is a lonely feeling. I say to those Republican friends on the other side: You are showing courage and you are showing wisdom. You are also showing you have learned from history, because you went back to the Clinton years where we didn't get one Republican vote for a bold economic plan. All the dire predictions turned out to be totally false. We need to get back to those days of economic growth and expansion, but we can't do it until we move forward with this three-legged stool, this economic stimulus package to create jobs, jobs, jobs; the housing piece to address the terrible loss of confidence in housing, to help people stay in their homes and stop the slide; and, of course, the third piece of making sure our financial sector works once again, so that creditworthy people can step to the plate, go to the bank, and get a loan. It is very hard to do that. I wish to point out one other piece of the package that is so important. The small businesses in our country will have some credit. This is very key. They will be able to go to the SBA and get this credit. So this is a package that is worthy of our support. It is far from perfect because, again, each of us could write the perfect bill, but that is not possible. Thank you to my Republican friends who have joined us. I wish to say to the conferees: I understand the pressures they are under and I make a plea to them that within the confines of the numbers we sent over, I hope they can find the right path to take so that this bill coming out of conference is acceptable over here, we get the 60 votes, and we move forward. We have a lot of work to do. Today I was on a TV show and it was so interesting because one of the experts on the show said, Well, wait a minute. You are talking about this economic stimulus. What about energy independence? What about health care? And he went on and on. What about exports? I thought after I got off the show: In 8 years we have developed all of these problems. We are not going to fix them in 24 hours. You have to have a list, as President Obama has, and tick them off one at a time, address these issues one at a time. The first issue is the stimulus. The second issue will be the financial sector, and then the housing sector. We are already talking about an energy bill that is going to come out pretty soon, which is going to be very exciting. These experts were saying we need a bold vision for America. I agree with them, but we can't fix what went wrong in 8 years in 24 hours. Give us a couple of months, at least, to get it on track and the effects of it will start being felt soon after that, but we can't do everything in 1 day. So, yes, these experts are right. We have to do all of this, but we have to start at the beginning. The stimulus package is No. 1. We are almost there. When it comes back from conference, we will have another vote, and it will go to the President's desk, and then we will move forward with the rest of the economic recovery plan. I do believe in my hearts of hearts--I have been around here a while--I do believe President Obama has learned from history. I do believe President Obama is a student of history, because if you are not a student of history you are going to repeat the mistakes of the past. I think he knows what works and I think he knows what doesn't work. So let's get behind him on this first initiative. Let's get it done. Then we will attack each and every problem, because there are many we have on our plate, but we will deal with them. I am confident--this is America--we will be stronger at the end of the day. Thank you very much, Madam President. I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I ask my colleagues to join me today in honoring the memory of a remarkable woman, Lani Silver. Lani was a passionate activist, oral historian, journalist, filmmaker, speaker, and artist who passed away January 28, 2009. Lani was born on March 28, 1948, in Lynn, MA. Shortly after she was born, her family moved to San Francisco. When she was 19, Lani traveled to South Africa, where she observed the awful impacts of apartheid. Lani was profoundly affected by this experience, and when she returned to San Francisco she began what was to become a lifetime commitment to progressive causes. In 1981, Lani founded the Holocaust Oral History Project. Over the next 20 years she recorded over 1,700 oral histories, with over 1,400 Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Lani also served as a consultant to Steven Speilberg's Shoah Foundation, which recorded 53,000 Holocaust survivor oral histories. Thanks to Lani's vision and determination, these valuable stories were not lost forever. Lani's commitment to social justice took many forms. In 2006 she cowrote and produced an opera about Yukiko Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who, during World War II rescued thousands of Jews during the Holocaust by hand-writing visas against the orders of the Japanese Government. Lani also organized events, exhibits, and media campaigns around the world to honor Sugihara and make sure his important story would not be forgotten. In 2000, Lani founded the James Byrd Jr. Racism Oral History Project, in honor of James Byrd, Jr., who was brutally murdered in Jasper, TX, in 1998 by three White supremacists. The project has recorded 2,500 oral histories on racism in America with participants from the San Francisco Bay area, Jasper, and Houston, TX. Lani's many contributions have not gone unrecognized. In 1996, Lani received the Woman of the Year award from KQED public television and radio, and in 2003 she received the Alumni of the Year award from the City College of San Francisco. Lani stood out as a driven activist who cared for her community deeply and will be remembered by friends and colleagues as earnest, humble, and dedicated to the ongoing fight for equality and fairness. Her optimism, dedication, and courage are reflected by the thousands of individuals whose lives she has enriched and improved. We will always be grateful for Lani's example of passionate activism. Lani is survived by sisters Lori Silver and Lynn Jacobs; nieces Sara Silver Jacobs, Brette Silver Jacobs, and Lauren Shaber; nephews Jose Jacobs and Justin Shaber, and brother-in-law Syd Shaber. Our hearts go out to Lani's family and friends during this difficult time.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. I thank you so much, I say to the Presiding Officer, the chairman of the Finance Committee, the Senator from Montana, for giving me this time and also for your very strong leadership on this very important bill. I think, as I listened to the Senator from Montana this morning, he laid out the case for this bill better than I have heard, frankly, from anyone in the most clear fashion. When somebody tells you something is very complicated and you do not understand it, do not believe it. There is a very simple, cogent, important, urgent reason for this bill: We need to save jobs, we need to create jobs, because if we do not, at the rate we are shedding jobs in this country, we are going to be headed for not a deep recession but perhaps even worse than that. My friend who is presiding pointed out that 3.6 million jobs were lost last year. How can anyone possibly turn away from that fact? Saturday, I spoke on this bill and the need for it, and I had a picture of 1,000 people in Florida showing up at a job fair for 35 firefighter jobs--1,000 people. It looked almost like a rock concert-- all these young people trying to get in line and fill out the forms for these jobs. The police had to come in--everyone was calm--just to make sure it was an orderly process. My friend from Montana pointed out that history will judge us on how we act right now. Again, just to keep it simple and focused, there are three things we can do. One, do nothing. Doing nothing, to me, is action. It is action for the status quo. Doing nothing, to me, is a hostile act on the American people. Doing nothing, from my mind, is closing our eyes to the election that was just held, an election that said: We need change. Now, what else could we do? We could pass a perfect bill. Trust me when I tell you, I can write one perfect for me. The Senator from Montana can write the bill perfect for him. The Senator from Arizona, who is leading the opposition--and, by the way, Senator McCain, I am pleased he is out here doing that because I think the people in America understand the difference between Senator McCain's approach and President Obama's approach, and this debate is about that, make no mistake. So Senator McCain could write the perfect bill. (Mrs. HAGAN assumed the Chair.) I see Senator Hagan has come to the Chamber. She could write the perfect bill. Each of us could write the perfect bill for us. And guess what. If we each stood up here and said: My way or the highway, there would be no bill, and therefore we would have nothing. Nothing is, in my mind, a hostile act on the American people. Then there is a third choice: a compromise, a compromise plan that has been put together by Democratic Senators on our side and several Republican Senators on the other side. Now, for the life of me, I do not understand how anyone can say that is not bipartisan. Of course it is bipartisan. Let me be clear, our Republican friends are filibustering this bill. We could get 58 votes for this bill. We know that. That would be a strong majority. We do not have 60, and we need Republicans to help us. Several have stepped forward, and I thanked them so much the other day, and I repeat it again. So the three choices we have: do nothing is one choice, in the face of these horrific job losses and layoffs continuing--and in my State of California, I put in the Record Saturday company after company after company laying off, pulling in, fearful--we could do nothing; we could have the perfect bill, which means that each of us will fight for that perfect bill--maybe we can get one or two others to agree it is perfect--or we can have a compromise bill. That is what is before us. So just remember, if someone tells you this is not bipartisan, they are not telling you the truth because if they did not filibuster us, we could pass a bill with 51 votes. They are forcing us to get 60 votes; therefore, we must get Republicans to support us. Passing this compromise means we get to conference with the House. Now, that is going to be a very tough conference, and my friend from Montana knows better than anyone how tough it will be. I want to send a message to my friends in the House of Representatives: I know how you feel. I know things were left out of this compromise that you desperately want in this bill. But I will say, you should fight for that, but at the end of the day, again, go back to the three options: doing nothing, doing the perfect bill, or doing the compromise. My kids always say to me, ``You are where you are.'' And we know where we are. We are in the middle of a filibuster. We have 58 Democrats, and we need to pick up Republican support, and we have done so. Now, I have to again point out to my colleagues why I feel my Republican friends are being just a little bit disingenuous when they shed bitter tears about the debt. Let's face facts. I didn't see those bitter tears during the Bush years. We went from $5 trillion in debt to $10 trillion in debt. Now they are very worried about another $800 billion. I understand they are worried. We didn't like the debt either, and we don't like the debt. When we were in charge with Bill Clinton, we got that debt down. We turned deficits into surpluses. We know how to do that, and we will get our economic house in order. We have done it before. When the first President Bush handed us billions of dollars in deficits and trillions in debt, we worked on balancing that budget, and we handed George Bush a budget surplus--we Democrats did--a budget surplus. Now the debt is $1 trillion, and our friends on the other side cry about it. There is a cartoon in the paper today that was given to me, if I can find it. I remember it. Oh, here it is. It is called ``Deficit Patrol.'' It is frame after frame of Republicans sleeping through the increase in the debt. They slept through billions of dollars in tax cuts; never said a word about the debt. Those tax cuts were to their friends, the highest earners. They slept through billions in debt to invade Iraq, billions more for oil and gas subsidies, billions more for Iraq, and this thing goes on and on. They kept snoozing through the debt. The debt doubled. As a result of their action, every man, woman, and child in America carries an additional $17,000 of debt because of the war in Iraq, subsidies to oil and gas, and because of tax cuts to the very wealthy. Suddenly, now--when it is time to help working families and invest in them and in our schools and rebuilding our infrastructure and creating jobs--suddenly they wake up and say: Do you have any idea what that will do to the debt? Look, I support my friends on the other side having the right to do whatever they want to stop this bill, but I will tell my colleagues what is hard for me: to have these tears about the debt when all through the Bush era we had an open checkbook for Iraq, an open checkbook for the wealthiest Americans, and nobody cared about the debt. Nobody cared. Nobody cared about the deficits on the other side. We never had this conversation. What I want to say is, we certainly learned from the depression era; that when times are as rough as these times are, we must act. We must act. Now, it is sad to say we don't have a surplus, that we don't have the debt on the way down, but that is the way it is. You are where you are. So we can either do nothing, do the perfect bill, or do the compromise. So I would say to every Member of the Senate and every Member of Congress that we need to work together. I watched President Obama and just a little bit of his townhall meeting. He is out there and he is answering questions--some tough ones too--about why this is necessary, and he makes the point. He said: People go to the floor in Congress, in the House and the Senate, and they say: Oh, my goodness, we are spending in the face of this recession. Well, that is the whole point. There is no money in this economy. The banks won't lend. We have used the monetary policy to bring interest rates to the banks way down. We fed money to the banks and perhaps we forestalled a complete crisis. However, I will tell my colleagues, they are still not doing what they should in terms of lending. People are fearful. They are not spending. So it is a vicious circle, and we need to stop this vicious circle. The way to do it is to save jobs from being lost and create new jobs. Now, we know this all started with the housing crisis. Believe me, we tried on this side to pass housing legislation. Seven times we were filibustered--seven. Seven times we were filibustered. We must address housing, and I am glad to hear my colleagues on the other side coming up with some very good ideas on how to do that, and I agree with some of those ideas. This is a three-legged stool. We have to pass this jobs program, this jobs plan--and by the way, these jobs will be created in the private sector as we go out to rebuild our roads and our bridges and our schools and make them energy efficient. Private sector jobs will be created. These will be contracts. So the first leg of that stool is jobs, jobs, jobs. That is what we are talking about. Next we have to deal with the housing crisis, as I said, belatedly so. I would like to see mortgages down, mortgage rates down for folks who will get a boost from that, an economic stimulus in their pocket from that. We have things we can do. Senator Durbin's plan for the bankruptcy courts is very important. If someone is underwater with their house, and they go to bankruptcy court, let's have the judge restructure their loan. These are things we should and must do. That is the second leg. The third is the financial crisis. I know the Obama administration is looking at some new ways, not just giving a blank check to these institutions, to these banks, but ensuring that they don't use it for big high salaries for the people at the top, for golden parachutes, and that in fact taxpayers have a stake in those institutions so we get paid back. That is a refreshing change. We are going to see that coming. That is going to be a very tough vote. I don't know how I am going to wind up voting on that. It depends on how much of that is aimed at the housing sector. But that is tomorrow, and this is today, and we are where we are. There have been more than 3 million jobs lost. Imagine that. In the State of Delaware there are less than 1 million people. So figure, it is almost four States of Delaware where every single person has lost their job. These are no ordinary times. Around here, I learned after many years the easiest vote was no. Vote no. It is so much easier. You could point to something in the bill you don't like--I say to my friend who is sitting in the chair, a wonderful new Member--you can vote no and say: You know, on line 7, page 240, there was something in there. It just brought me to a ``no'' vote. I couldn't take it. I disagreed with it. It is easy. It is the easiest way to vote because we don't know at the end of the day whether this package is going to do every single thing we hope it will do. But I will tell my colleagues it will do some of those things. It will create jobs. It will save jobs. It will help our States. It will help our communities. It will help make us energy efficient. It will help make us energy independent. It will lead us on the road to clean energy. It will unleash the technological genius of a lot of our people looking at clean energy. I want to close by again thanking those Republicans who joined with us. I know how hard it is. I have been in situations where I have stepped out, done something not popular with my caucus. It is very difficult. It is really hard, but at the end of the day we have to put country first. Country first. If you line up every economist in this Nation from the left to the right, except for a few on either end of the spectrum, they are all telling us to do a package about this size. Don't make it too small or it will be inefficient. I think the Senator from Montana was very instructive when he pointed out that the tax cuts will kick in--certainly almost 100 percent of them--in 2 years, and overall, 75 or 76 or even 80 percent of the package, spending and tax cuts, will kick in, in the first 2 years. Larry Summers, a great economist working for President Obama, has said he believes if a few dollars kick in 2 years out, that is not all bad because this is a deep recession. We are going to need those dollars as well. So to those three colleagues who came forward--I think I should say the two who came forward with Ben Nelson, Senator Collins and Senator Specter, taking the lead--thank you. I know it is hard. You are reaching out to this new President. He has everything on his shoulders. This is what he promised. He promised he would not sit back and allow the policies of the past to dominate: bickering, bickering, bickering, never getting anything done, and finding fault just for the sake of being able to vote no. Saturday I read into the Record a story about one of my constituents who has been out of work and out of work and out of work. He worked in the high-tech sector. He can't find a job. He is just desperate. He had to place his children into foster care. We cannot do nothing. When my friends on the other side say, oh, they are for doing something, at the end of the day, it seems to me, by making us reach a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority, they are making it tough for us to do something. Let's not forget that. They are filibustering this bill. That is why we need to get 60 votes. So they are slowing it down and slowing it down and slowing it down. As a matter of fact, they stand here and say: What is the rush? I will tell them what the rush is: people being laid off every day, people losing health care every day, people losing confidence every day, people losing housing every day, people losing hope every day, economists telling us to move swiftly every day. So don't say you are for something when you are making us get a 60-vote supermajority, because people are smart in this country. They get it. They know what you are saying when you all of a sudden are afraid of the debt because we are doing things you don't like. You didn't mind going into debt for the war in Iraq--open checkbook. Rebuilding Iraq? Fine. Tax cuts for the wealthy few? Wonderful. No problem. You should look at that cartoon. It says it better. It just happens to be in Politico. So don't say you want to do something and then set up a 60-vote hurdle. Don't say you want to do something, but you are afraid of the debt when, for 8 long years, you have doubled the debt from $5 billion to $10 billion. Say the truth. Say the truth. I think I know what the truth is. You don't really like investing in schools. You don't like investing in workers. You don't really think it makes sense at this time to build more infrastructure. You don't like helping our cities. That is the truth. But we believe that is the way to stimulate this economy and grow it, stop it from sliding, reverse it. We are going to try to do it. We still have a long road ahead of us, no question about it. This isn't easy, but we are on the path to do it. I hope the American people will listen to our President both today and tonight when he holds his press conference. I hope the people will listen to this debate because it is very clear where the sides line up. What we need to do is the right thing for America. Those choices are clear: Do nothing, hold out for your perfect bill, or embrace the compromise. I am embracing the compromise, and I urge my colleagues to do it. I hope more will do it from the other side. I think it will be such a vote of confidence in the future and confidence in this President and confidence in this country if we can pick up more votes on the other side. I hope we will. I am very pleased to have had this opportunity to speak. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Sure