Barbara Boxer: “we are making the case about advise and consent but many of our people around the country are worried about what is…”

“we are making the case about advise and consent but many of our people around the country are worried about what is coming in these next couple of days. The country is on alert. People are asking me, should I really go out and get duct tape? What can I do? I have been around politics for a very long time. I was elected to the House in 1982. These are the toughest times I have seen, and I have seen some tough ones. We have an economy that is not performing. We have a budget which has turned from surplus to deficit. The very people who said deficits were terrible when Democrats were in the majority are saying deficits are now fine as long as they are not more than so many percent of the gross national product, no problem. Unfortunately for those people, Alan Greenspan said deficits do matter, and we have an economy that is the worst that it has been in 50 years. On top of that, we have Osama bin Laden who apparently issued a warning to Americans and he told the Iraqi people that if the Americans come in there, do what it takes to hurt them all around the world. We have the tragedy and sadness of the Shuttle Columbia. We have the news that North Korea possesses perhaps the ability to hit the west coast, where I live and my people I represent live and not far from where the Presiding Officer lives. We have a lot of challenges.”