Barbara Boxer: “first, I want to say to the Senator from Arkansas, thank you for coming to the floor today and talking to us and to…”

“first, I want to say to the Senator from Arkansas, thank you for coming to the floor today and talking to us and to whoever is watching here. As the Senator has a way of doing, he finds the truth. He finds the truth in all of this. The truth that he pointed out--and then I will ask a question--when you get through with this Republican budget, what you realize is that it hurts the people of this country. It hurts the hardest working people of this country. We will bring that out in the next few days. The question I want to ask the Senator is this: We know when the Government shut down and we had that crisis, it was because the President of the United States stood up and said to this Republican Congress, ``I'm not going to back down. I'm going to stand up for Medicare and the elderly who rely on it. I'm going to stand up for Medicaid and the poorest children who rely on it, and the poorest seniors in nursing homes who rely on it.'' He was going to stand up, and he did, for the environment and for education. I say to my friend, has he looked at this Republican budget that they have just unveiled with great fanfare, and that budget which the President vetoed, and does he see similarities between the two?”