BOXER MEETS WITH SAN DIEGO BUSINESS LEADERS, BRINGS "JOBS FOR CALIFORNIA" TOUR TO TOWN

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July 8, 2010 (San Diego) – “We have to make sure that California is the hub of a new clean energy economy,” Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) said in a press conference Tuesday in San Diego. She added, “If we do this right, we’re going to see the words `made in America’ again.”

 

The Senator’s plan includes creation of transportation jobs, including high-speed rail construction. “I’ve been to Otay and 805 and seen the jobs being created,” she noted. “I have an opponent saying nothing is happening from the Economic Recovery Act, and that’s just wrong. I see people every day who say thank you for the jobs that have been created.”

 

Although Fiorina has contended that the stimulus bill has not created any jobs for California, www.recovery.gov, a site which tracks jobs created by stimulus funds, lists 682,370 jobs created nationwide by the stimulus funds to date, including 70,187 jobs created during the first four months of this year alone in California. According to Boxer, if saved jobs are included, the stimulus fund has provided employment for over 150,000 Californians thus far. Long-range it is expected to create many more jobs in clean energy industries, as this chart shows.

 

Next, Boxer aims to reform tax loopholes that encourage outsourcing of American jobs to China, India and other countries. “We need to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas and start giving tax breaks to companies that will hire the unemployed,” she said, noting that Fiorina outsourced thousands of California jobs overseas.
 

Boxer criticized Fiorina for receiving a $21 million severance package when she was “laid off” by the Hewlitt Packard Board, which asked Fiorina to resign at a time when her company was laying off workers. “She doesn’t understand why people need unemployment benefits because she didn’t need unemployment,” said Boxer. “My opponent is running on her record, but she was fired from the job, laid off 30,000 American workers and shipped their jobs to China …”
 

Boxer warned against those who seek to rollback AB 32, California’s measure to reduce pollution and provide incentives for clean, green energy. She said AB 32 has resulted in “large and small businesses moving forward because of our clean energy profits.”

The Senator discussed ways to help the small businesses community specifically.

 

“Sixty percent of jobs are coming from small businesses,” said Boxer, who is working to make credit available to more small businesses. “We haven’t raised the cap on SBA (Small Business Administration) loans in a long time and we need to.” She also suggested that bail-out funds to big banks need to get to local banks that will lend to small businesses. Boxer authored successful legislation that forced big banks that took bailout funds and paid out huge bonuses using taxpayer funds to return those bonuses to the federal government.
 

 

She also revealed plans to help people who work from home. Noting the complexities of applying for a home office deduction currently, she called for a simple flat rate deduction of $1,500.
 

“We need a person with a heart in the Senate,” said Boxer. “I’m proud to say that 1,000 Boxer provisions have been enacted.”
 

Her record includes passing the first every after-school program. “A million children are off the streets and away from gangs as a result,” the Senator noted.
 

She also authored legislation to provide better treatment for veterans suffering from burns. Another Boxer bill put a stop to children being used to test dangerous chemicals such as pesticides.
 

East County Magazine asked Senator Boxer if she would support bringing stimulus funds to East County to help fund wildfire prevention projects such as cutting brush and undergrounding power lines.

 

“I would absolutely agree that would be a terrific way to put people to work,” said Boxer, but noted that priorities for use of federal stimulus funds are establish by the County’s Board of Supervisors. “If the Board of Supervisors wants to see that, then I would urge them to get in touch with me.”
 

 

Handouts at the event highlighted Boxer’s record on creating jobs and helping to turn the economy around.

 

She coauthored a Clean Energy bill that was enacted, designed to create over 100,000 new clean energy jobs in California, more clean energy jobs nationwide, as well as reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and addressing global warming. She successfully advocated for $17.5 million from the Obama administration to advance new clean-energy technologies in California’s transit system.
 

Boxer has previously won reelection with the largest number of votes ever received by any statewide candidate in California.

 

Earlier in the week, Fiorina made the following statement: "Barbara Boxer has done nothing to create jobs in California, but rather, has spent nearly three decades supporting job-killing policies, including over a trillion dollars in tax hikes, and increasing our national debt to unprecedented levels."
 

Boxer responded by handing out long lists of jobs her policies and bills have created in San Diego and across the nation.
 

Boxer advocated for a high-speed rail line from San Diego to San Francisco, a project that is expected to create 600,000 jobs. She supported the HIRE Act to provide tax credits for small businesses that hire unemployed workers and introduced a bill to reauthorize the Economic Development Agency. She also voted over 130 times for “smart tax cuts for working families” and proposed legislation to assist community banks in extending credit to small businesses and individuals to spur job growth; she has also proposed providing capital to community banks with requirements that they lend to small business owners and individuals.

 

View Boxer’s jobs plan here: http://www.barbaraboxer.com/issues?id=0016

 

Boxer also passed out alist of San Diego projects funded with federal stimulus funds backed by Boxer, such as major projects in transportation, healthcare, affordable housing, homelessness prevention, military base construction, and research at the University of California.

 

In addition, Boxer released a 15-page list of other projects benefitting San Diego through the years that she has supported during her tenure in the Senate. Those projects included helping to establish a combat care center in San Diego to treat wounded service members, Boxer’s introduction of the Halt Electricity Price Gouging in San Diego Act in 2000, funding for family health facilities construction, anti-gang youth mentoring program, impact aid for San Diego Unified School District, funding for the San Diego Four-Resrvoir connection project in East County, a Small Business Resource Center, highway projects, creation of a wildlife refuge, water treatment projects, Cleveland National Forest preservation, port security, Homeland Security funding for our region, and more. 

 

The Senator is also the only member of the U.S. Senate to chair two committees (Ethics and Environmental). 

 

Boxer's campaign is supported by dozens of business leaders in the high-tech, clean-tech and green-tech industries including leaders of major corporations such as Google, Oracle, and others. Fiorina, despiite heading up a Fortune 20 corporation in the past, had no leaders of Silicon Valley, clean tech, green tech or high-tech industries listed as endorsers on her website.
 

A handful of protesters, most of whom who admitted to being volunteers with the Fiorina campaign, stood outside the North Park Theater, where Boxer was speaking during her San Diego visit. One carried a sign claiming 41,800 jobs have been lost here due to the stimulus bill, but offered no sourcing or explanation or why her figures were dramatically different than those compiled by official government sources. 

 

Boxer's campaign recently called out Fiorina for relying on outdated figures and inaccurate information, a contention supported by the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, and California Legislative Analyst's office, as ECM previously reported.

 

Fiorina has criticized Boxer’s support of the stimulus bill.  In addition, Fiorina, a breast cancer survivor, has called for the rollback of healthcare reforms that Boxer supported. Boxer has indicated that the healthcare reform measure will ultimately help provide access to healthcare for the uninsured, help  small businesses that could not afford healthcare for their employees, and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions--such as breast cancer.

 

Recently, Fiorina was caught on an open mike what has been criticized as a catty remark about Boxer’s hairstyle, which she called “so yesterday.”
 

Boxer drew praise from local business leaders, such as Keith Berkley of Berkley Construction, as well as Assemblymember Lori Saldana, for her efforts. Promising to live up to her name and be a “fighter”, Boxer said this election provide a clear choice for voters.

 

“There are very real differences here,” she concluded, adding pointedly, “It’s not about who has the best hairstyle.”
 


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