Press Release of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer

For Immediate Release: February 22, 2011

Contact: Washington D.C. Office (202) 224-3553

Boxer Statement on House Republicans' Budget Cuts  

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today held a press conference call to discuss the House Republicans’ budget cuts, their impact on California and the threat of a government shutdown.
The following are her remarks as prepared for delivery:
Early Saturday morning, House Republicans – without a single Democratic vote – passed a Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government for the remaining seven months of this fiscal year.
The budget cuts passed by House Republicans are extreme and dangerous on many levels.
Everyone agrees that we must cut the deficit. But at a time when unemployment is still high and too many families are struggling, we have to reduce the deficit gradually and sensibly – so that we don’t jeopardize our fragile economic recovery.
This is no time for political vendettas.
According to some estimates from independent budget experts, the Republicans’ proposed cuts of $100 billion off the President’s FY 2011 budget plan could result in the loss of at least 800,000 jobs.
It is inconceivable that House Republicans would pass a budget that would cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs – just as our economy is starting to turn around.
When President Obama took office, our economy was heading off a cliff, and even top Republicans such as former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told us capitalism was on the brink of collapse.
President Obama and the Democratic Congress helped bring this economy back by making difficult choices. We stabilized the financial industry, restored lending, saved the American auto industry, approved tax cuts for the middle class and made important investments in infrastructure and clean energy that helped create jobs.
Now House Republicans are overreaching and threatening our economy.
Democrats agree that we must make cuts to reduce the deficit. We have already agreed to cuts of $41 billion off the President’s budget.
So Republicans have proposed $100 billion in cuts and we have proposed $41 billion. Now we need to move forward and compromise.

Shockingly, the House Republicans have not only cut, but they have used deficit reduction as an excuse to carry out vendettas:

• Against the EPA;
• Against food safety;
• Against family planning, women’s health and Planned Parenthood;
• Against the Corporation for Public Broadcasting;
• Against health care reform;
• Against clean energy;
• And against education programs – like Head Start and Pell grants – that give our children a chance at a better future.

I ran for reelection last year and not one constituent said they wanted dirtier air or dirtier water…or more contaminated food…or more unintended pregnancies, more abortions and more deaths for women because they can’t get cancer screenings. They never said they wanted more dependence on foreign oil or more American losing their health insurance.
No, I heard just the opposite.
Yet this is just some of what the Republican budget would do to California and the nation:

• Pell Grants in California would be cut by more than $700 million – reducing financial aid for many of the more than 1 million California students who rely on these grants to help pay for college.
• Head Start would be slashed by $1.1 billion nationwide, leading to layoffs of 55,000 teachers and staff and more than 218,000 low-income children being cut from the program. In California, more than 24,000 low-income kids would lose access to this critical program.
• Cuts to Community Health Centers would cause more than 3.3 million patients to lose access to care, including 457,000 Californians. In California alone an estimated 12 heath centers would close and 750 jobs would be lost.
• The Republican budget eliminates all funding for high-speed rail. Nationwide the cuts to high-speed and intercity passenger rail could put 200,000 jobs at risk – including tens of thousands of jobs in California.
• Cuts to afterschool programs would mean that 100,000 children nationwide – including almost 11,000 California children – would be shut out of programs that would keep them safe, away from gangs and drugs, and help them learn.
• 110 Planned Parenthood Centers in California, which serve 730,000 patients, would no longer be able to receive federal funds for any purpose. This means they would no longer be able to even participate in essential federal programs, such as Medicaid. This would jeopardize the health and lives of thousands of women and families in California – and millions of women and families across the country – who depend on Planned Parenthood for access to life-saving cancer screenings, contraception, annual exams and other basic health services.
• The Republican budget would lead to nearly 900 fewer Border Patrol Agents nationwide and would slash funding for border security fencing, infrastructure and technology by $272 million.
• The Republican budget would cut $1.3 billion from the National Institutes of Health funding for medical research to develop new treatments and cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases. In addition to the impact on patients and families who are looking to NIH-funded research for help and for hope, this cut could threaten the future growth of the biomedical industry – which employs nearly 268,000 Californians – and would eliminate about $160 million in funding for California researchers alone.

Some of the cuts are so draconian that agencies would struggle just to function.
The Republicans slashed EPA’s budget by nearly one third – threatening the agency’s ability to protect public health and our communities from dangerous pollution.
The House Republicans’ budget is clearly a backdoor way to attack our nation’s landmark environmental and public health laws. We cannot allow that to stand.
There are many ways we can reduce the deficit – in addition to the cuts Democrats have already agreed to support:

• Ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas would save $15 billion over ten years;
• Ending subsidies for oil and gas companies would save $44 billion over ten years;
• Cutting waste, fraud and abuse in government contracts – according to the Obama administration, we could $500 billion over ten years;
• Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bringing our troops home would save more than $1 trillion over ten years;
• And we must not repeal health care reform – which would reduce the deficit by $230 billion over 10 years and by more than $1 trillion over 20 years.

The savings from all these common-sense proposals would greatly reduce the need for cuts that would hurt our students, our seniors, our families and our environment.
I don’t want to see a government shutdown and we can avoid it by working together. And we must avoid it because a government shutdown would be a disaster for our nation and for our economy.
Let me be clear: I will do everything in my power to see that no member of Congress gets paid if the government shuts down.
A government shutdown would be a failure of the most basic obligation we have to the American people. If we can’t resolve our differences, we should not receive a paycheck – even retroactively.
That’s why Senator Casey and I have written a bill to prevent lawmakers from receiving any pay during a government shutdown.
I will work to get it passed by the Senate when we get back next week and have it sent over to the House for Speaker Boehner to pass.
I’m hoping it will nudge my Republican colleagues to – once and for all – take the threat of a government shutdown off the table.
I am so pleased Majority Leader Reid today announced his plan to bring a clean 30-day Continuing Resolution to the Senate floor next week that would allow the government to continue running while lawmakers on both sides work toward a common-sense budget.
I hope that Speaker Boehner and House Republicans will join us and approve this CR – so we can avoid a shutdown that would disrupt the lives of millions of Americans.
Thank you. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.