Barbara Boxer: “Again, I thank my friend for connecting the dots. To those Americans who say there is no difference between the parties…”

“Again, I thank my friend for connecting the dots. To those Americans who say there is no difference between the parties, there are no issues in this election, that it is a matter of who has the best smile, I say that is not what it is about. It is about issues that impact millions and millions of Americans; 30,000 Americans die every year of gunshots. My friend pointed out that about 13 a day of those are children--children. The Democrats are saying we need sensible gun laws, and our Republican friends are saying we don't need anything, just hang it up in the conference committee and say a few words here and let's move on. We will not let that issue die, if you will, nor the Patients' Bill of Rights and prescription drugs. Again, it is about millions of people. What always fascinates me is my friends on the Republican side--oh, they are tough on law and order. And I agree with them. I am as tough as they come. I will support the death penalty for heinous crimes. But when an HMO kills a patient because they won't approve the appropriate test--and I have seen it time and time again in my State, where tests for cancer were denied because they were expensive diagnostic tests, and HMOs wind up essentially killing a patient because they got treatment too late--they let them off the hook: We don't want the right to sue. Let these people just walk away with maybe a slap on their wrists. Where is the outrage?…”