Barbara Boxer: “Again, my friend raises a very crucial issue. I have the paperwork here, and my friend is right on target. George W.…”

“Again, my friend raises a very crucial issue. I have the paperwork here, and my friend is right on target. George W. Bush's tax cut proposal is $1.7 trillion from 2002 to 2010, and going to his privatized plan for Social Security will cost $1 trillion. My friend said $800 billion; it is $1 trillion. The projected on-budget surplus, if the economy continues to do well--and you never can count on that, but we certainly hope so--is $877 billion, which leaves a $2.7 trillion deficit. We are going to go back into the bad days. So not only are George W. Bush and the Republican Party not wanting to act and make life better by moving forward on the issues about which we talked--the gun issue, prescription drugs, the Patients' Bill of Rights, and the minimum wage. So not only won't they change for the good, they want to go back, and we are going to be facing these horrific deficits, a national debt that will start to soar again, the markets will react with high interest rates, and we will be back into the deepest trouble. We will be bailing ourselves out. I have to say again that by looking at this entire choice we have in this election, it is very interesting. As I listen to my friend, I realize what we face. We face a situation where either we are going to go forward on certain issues but keep fiscal responsibility, or not move on crucial issues that are really life-and-death issues and go back to the days of horrible economic times.”