Barbara Boxer: “When we talk about our budget and the tax cuts that are part of it, we should have a foundation to that budget, a…”

“When we talk about our budget and the tax cuts that are part of it, we should have a foundation to that budget, a foundation to that tax cut. I think it should show three pillars. One is fairness. Let us be fair to the people. Let's make sure that as we look at the size of the tax cuts, where they go, what we spend, what we invest in, that we are fair. The greatest thing we have in our country is a very strong middle class. If we lose that middle class, we will be weak. Yet if we look at some of the numbers, it appears that the gap between the rich and poor is in fact growing. That is not healthy for anyone. That is not good for a society, if it gets too big. What we find out is we have people who have lost hope, who may turn to drugs, alcohol. We know what happens when things turn bad and they are not as productive as they can be. They are not living up to their potential because maybe they cannot even afford college tuition. Fairness has to be what we are about. Values: What do we value in this country? Do we not value a balanced approach, fairness to our people and investing in our people, making sure that our children are healthy; that they have a good, free, public education system that is strong; that we create jobs; that we have job training; that we don't turn our backs on our senior citizens; that we have safe streets? That is a value. Right now we have senior citizens who are under a lot of stress.”