Barbara Boxer: “we are all here and hopeful there will be a deal so we can avert going over the fiscal cliff. I listened carefully to…”

“we are all here and hopeful there will be a deal so we can avert going over the fiscal cliff. I listened carefully to the remarks of my friend Senator Harkin, which I would have to describe as fairly negative. I wish to project a bit more of a positive view. We all know that no side, if there is a deal, is going to get 100 percent of what they want. We know that because one party doesn't control everything, so we are going to have to meet somewhere in the middle of where both parties stand. We also know if we don't act, 100 percent of the American people are going to start feeling an impact of higher taxes. I honestly do not worry about the millionaires and the billionaires at all. I don't worry about the people who are fine, who don't even know or care that much about a tax hike that takes them back to the Clinton years when they did very well. I don't worry about those folks. I worry about the folks in the middle. There are always arguments about what that line is. Some say the middle class is at $75,000, some say $150,000, and some go even higher because their States, as is my State, are very high cost-of-living States. So we know if we are going to get a deal, we are going to have to meet somewhere in the middle. To me, if we fail, it will be a very sad moment in history. I hear a lot of talk about the sequester. I don't know exactly how the President pro tempore voted, but I voted for a sequester if we couldn't find savings as part of a debt limit deal.…”