Barbara Boxer: “Mr. President, if you were to go out all over this country and ask most of our constituents from every State in the…”

“Mr. President, if you were to go out all over this country and ask most of our constituents from every State in the Union what is on their minds, they are going to say it is the economy; it is jobs; it is their security. In this particular budget we should do much more to ensure that jobs are created and that our families are protected. So what we do in this amendment, which we pay for, is a number of initiatives which will help us create and retain jobs in this great country. First of all, I want to give my colleagues a sense of why this is so important. The amendment I am offering is cosponsored by Senators Daschle, Sarbanes, Clinton, Schumer, Kennedy, Kohl, Durbin, Levin and Dodd. Let me paint a picture of where we are. I think the best way to do it is just show a series of charts, that are very clear: Private sector jobs decline: Three million jobs lost since January 2001.”