Barbara Boxer: “I wish to thank Senator Harkin because he and I were spending a little time together in the great State of our Presiding…”

“I wish to thank Senator Harkin because he and I were spending a little time together in the great State of our Presiding Officer, and he and I agreed that one of the issues that ought to be talked about a little bit more involves the stark choice we are facing in November in large part due to the budget of Paul Ryan, who is now the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republicans. And Governor Romney has endorsed and embraced the Ryan budget. I think it was Senator Harkin's idea that we ought to explain that Ryan budget, so I am going to do my best to talk about it as the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which has the jurisdiction of highways, bridges, transportation systems, and the environment, and I will also make a couple of comments about Medicare. I know Senator Harkin is going to go into that in great depth. I want to make sure everybody understands that what I am talking about comes straight from the budget. So if you look at page 78 of the report accompanying the Ryan budget resolution, Mr. Ryan makes it clear he wants to make devastating cuts to transportation. What do I mean when I say that? I mean devastating. I mean a 50-percent cut, which means about 1 million jobs would be lost if the Ryan budget were to go into effect. We are talking about construction jobs--an area that has been hit so hard. We still haven't come back from this recession.…”