mrs. boxer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: mr. president, my friend, senator sessions, has said that republicans are prepared to vote on the reid proposal. actually, they're not. they want to vote on whether to allow a vote on the reid proposal. that's what a cloture vote is. and they don't want to vote on the reid proposal. we have offered that and said that a majority should rule. just like the boehner proposal passed in the house with a simple majority, we want a chance to pass the reid proposal with a simple majority. now, my friend says, that's laughable. why is it laughable? we went back and looked at the record, mr. president, and every vote we can find on increasing the debt was always done by a simple majority. always. so if you want to follow tradition, cut out the filibuster, let us vote, and we will pass the reid proposal tonight. and we can find a way to resolve these problems. my colleague also said, democrats want to raise taxes. let me just say something. democrats want to reduce taxes on the middle class, but we d

mrs. boxer madam president, how much time do i have under the order? the presiding officer: 13 1/2 minutes remain on the democratic side. mrs. boxer: thank you. madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of s. res 246 which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res 246 recognizing and commending the 2011 national veterans wheelchair games to be held in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, august 1 through august 6, 2011. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mrs. boxer: madam president, i further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to this measure be printed at the appropriate place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection, it's agreed to. mrs. boxer: thank you so much, madam president. and i want to say that i listened

mrs. boxer: would the senator yield for a question? mr. durbin: let me complete one thought and then ail a be happy to yield. secondly, the president has put in a payroll tax cut working families get about 2% each pay period. the belief is -- by the president, and i share it -- that that kind of a helping hand ends up with dollars in hand for many fathers spent into the economy. i hope that we extend the payroll tax cut as part of this agreement. now, it doesn't serve specifically the need for deficit reduction, but it certainly serves the need for us tstimulate the economy and have people buy more. right now we have a crisis of consumer confidence and i think it is brought on by the bad news out of washington. we have to share some of this blame. it is brought on by the fact that many people overborrowed before the recession set in. many times going deeply into debt. for example, in the 1990's, the average indebtedness of a family was 84% of their annual income. it reached -- by the year 2507 -

mrs. boxer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. oxer: madam president, i want to thank leader harry reid for stepping into the breach in this situation and offering us a way out of this, what i consider to be, republican-made crisis. why do i say that? the debt limit has been increased 89 times since 1939. 55 times under republican presidents and 34 times under democratic presidents. never has either party ever brought us to this brink of default. never, never, never in the history of america. it is a man-made crisis. it is a republican-made crisis. it has never happened before. the real challenge we face is clearly with our deficit and our debt, and guess what the good news is there? we had this crisis before, this challenge before, and we stepped up to the plate and we passed a budget when bill clinton was president that not only balanced the budget -- and we didn't need a constitutional amendment to the constitution to do it -- we did it by working it out, by cutting out the waste and the fraud and abuse in government, by choosin

mrs. boxer: reserving the right to object and i won't object. i would like to get 20 minutes to speak following senator coburn. mr. reid: sounds good to me. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. reid: the rest of you senators will be limited to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, one of the things -- at 6:30, i would ask unanimous consent that i be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. a senator: madam president, i understand that we're in morning hour, and i understand that i may speak on the senate floor for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. mr. moran: i would ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from kansas. mr. moran: madam president, thank you very much. i've spoken several times over the last several weeks in regard to the issue at hand, and clearly

mrs. boxer: mr. president? -- mrs. feinstein: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from california. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much. i ask unanimous consent that two fellows in senator rockefeller's office, dale orps and janet phillips be given floor privileges during consideration. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mrs. feinstein: thank you mr. president. i have served in this body for many years and i have never been more dismayed, more frustrated than i have been these past few days. and every day it gets a little bit worse because day by day our country grows closer to defaulting on our sovereign debt, something that has never ever happened in the history of this country. and the repercussions of this protracted and public debate on whether our government will honor its financial obligations are already evident. so this is what we know for sure. the stock market has seen several days of decline as investors sell off securities. the united states is at high risk of a credit downgrade. gold prices a

for example, i know that senators wyden and warner feel -- mrs. boxer: the senate is not in order. johns johns i know -- mr. johnson: i know senators wyden and warner feel strong about their amendments regarding a navy carrier on the east coast. i know other senators have equally strong feelings on this subject. i understand that the defense authorization bill includes a provision in the report on this issue, and i appreciate the willingness of both delegations to postpone the debate so we can focus on timely passage of this appropriations bill. mr. president, i also thank the subcommittee staff who do the heavy lifting and the drafting and managing of the bill on the floor. as i have said many times, this is a good bill. it is bipartisan, and it is responsible. i urge all of my colleagues to support it. mr. kirk: i want to thank dave schiapo on the floor for guiding this, vice chairman cochran and his staff director bruce evans. i want to thank tina reference evans, dennis balkam and patrick magnuson who brought this first appropriations bill of this congress through. with that i t

i know that mrs. boxer has some streamlining.ut we can save an incredible amounts of money by speeding up the process, limiting the amount of times for approval, making approvals run concurrently rather than consecutively. that is another means at. are legislation has more value both in the projects that can be done in saving taxpayer money at the same time. host: one of the items that you talk about is privatizing a section of amtrak. this story recently says -- that is according to the congressional research service at. -- service. what do you think about that? guest: i have seen the report. our council advises us otherwise, that we are not taking a legally, that we do have a provision for compensation within the measure that was proposed. what we are talking about here is trying to -- if you are going to do a high-speed rail system rather than spend $8 billion on dozens of dozens of snail speed marginal projects, that we look at one's success. the northeast corridor runs very poorly, the service is 83 miles per hour. it was a

mrs. boxer: i want to say to the senator from oklahoma that standing up and offer the list that offer opportunities for saving. on my list we know well over a trillion dollars that owe money to the united states of america and haven't paid it. if we even got a portion of that over the ten-year period, that's over a ten-year period,about we could do this. and i look forward to working with him on this. but tonight we are not facing a three-week time frame as my colleague perhaps suggested. we're just facing down a five-day time frame. and we are facing a manmade crisis here. by that i have to say a republican-made crisis on raising the debt ceiling. we have never in the history of this country faced a situation like this. why do i say this? because the debt ceiling has been raised 89 times. 89 times. and i could tell you, because i voted for it a number of times, and voted no four times. yes, on occasion you vote no on it to send a message, but you don't bring it down. i've never seen anything li

mrs. boxer: thank you, very much. so defense spending, they may look at it but they're not happy about it, even though it's gone up 74% over the last ten years. now, again, we should look at warren buffett. warren buffett made the point that he paid only 17.7% tax -- he paid only a 17.7% tax on his $46 million in earnings, while his receptionist paid 30% on her wages. imagine. in 2008, the 400 richest income tax filers paid an effective rate of about 18%. take exxonmobil. they paid an effective rate of 18% on $7 billion, whereas the average family making a combined $100,000 had a higher effective rate. let's give tax breaks to the middle class, not to the wealthiest who have everything and more, whose children's children's children's children will be fine. this is america. this isn't pre-revolutionary france, where the king had everything. if there's a family supported by two teachers and they make $106,000, they had a higher tax rate than exxonmobil, but yet and still, if you look around the country at republican leg

mr. deco sta and a few others. the design intent is not being met. supervisor cohen, i am glad you're asking some many good questions. we have senator feinstein and senator boxer th

mr. deco sta and a few others. the design intent is not being met. supervisor cohen, i am glad you're asking some many good questions. we have senator feinstein and senator boxer others. they have worked so hard to get the system going. i want to implore the officials -- muni officials. look at light rail as an organic entity. also, all of them, they are modern designers. these urban systems are treated almost as living entities. we are just barely able to makee discomfort and dissatisfaction. in these to go beyond. -- they are showing the discomfort and dissatisfaction. it needs to go beyond. say, wow, that is now my job is there. that is out. that is the benchmark. [chime] thank you. these are $2 i did not pay for on the fair coming here. i will make a donation to the treasurer's office. thank you. supervisor cohen: thank you. well, to wrap up all the public comment and testimony, thank you to mta. thank you for answering questions. although we did not have any members of the public that actually were lined out the door, believe me when i tell you -- and i have the data to prove this -- i hear from residents all the time complaining about their dissatisfacti

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nevada durbin, murray inouye, coons whitehouse boxer casey sanders lautenberg brown of ohio, reed of rhode island, feinstein merkley cardin, levin, schumer. mr. reid: mr. president i now move to proceed to calendar number 91, h.r. 2055. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to proceed. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 91, h.r. 2055 an act making appropriations for military construction, the department of veterans affairs and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: i have a cloture motion at the desk, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the under undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 91, h.r. 2055 an act making appropriations for military construction the department of veterans affairs and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2012, and for other purposes. signed by 18 senators as follows. mr. reid: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that the reading of

mr. chairman, may i be heard on this? >> yes, senator boxer. >> while senator lugar speaks for them maybe senator rubio had the opportunity to meet with the members of the rebel government and has met and involved them in those. i just feel very uncomfortable -- it's not that i really -- i mean, i like the intent of what you're doing. i support what we're doing in libya, but for me, i just feel uncomfortable. these kinds of things can come back and bite you. that's been my experience in life. when you really don't know for sure. and i think, you know, this administration is looking at all this and they're weighing the same questions that senator lugar posed. so i'm very respectful of this amendment. its intent. i'm respectful of my chairman supporting it. i do want the proceeds that we do get from gadhafi to go and reimburse us. i actually like my friend senator inhofe's amendment. this one is a little more vague about how we distribute it. unfortunately, i would oppose this unless the senator would want to work with us and maybe try to modify

reid of nevada, baucus, boxer, levin, harkin, cardin, schumer, durbin, leahy, warner, murray, coons, blumenthal, brown of ohio, conrad, begich, kerry, stabenow. mr. reid: mr. president, i have a second-degree amendment which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 590 to amendment numbered 589. mr. reid: i have a motion to refer the house message to the budget committee with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, moves to refer the house message to the senate budget committee with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment numbered 591. mr. reid: ask for the yeas and nays on that motion. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a sufficient second. the yeas and nays will be ordered. mr. reid: now, mr. president, i have an amendment to my that is also at the desk. -- to my instructions that is also at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. r

senators blumenthal sherrod brown franken, boxer and gillibrand have sponsored with me in joining on the resolution and i invite all my colleagues to do the same. mr. president, the conrad budget proves that we need not attack medicare and social security to deal with our deficit. his budget is living proof that there is reason to attack medicare and social security to get through our deficit situations. that attack on medicare and social security is a willful and unnecessary act by the republicans. well rhode islanders in increasing numbers have been writing to me urging me to continue fighting to preserve these retirement programs, to preserve this infrastructure of american freedom. time is running short and americans are counting on their elected representatives to do the right thing. well, it is time to do the right thing. let me close by reading a piece from an editorial in the "economist" magazine." the economist "magazine is a very conservative publication. and it is very much in the favor of free markets. i would say by and large it is a republican journal. here is what "the economist" says about the situation we are in now. "the sticking

mrs. boxer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendments and call up amendment number 577. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from california, mrs. boxer, proposes an amendment numbered 577. mrs. boxer: i ask that the amendment be considered as read, and i just have about one minute to talk on it right now. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: madam president, the department of defense runs schools that serve over 86,000 children across america, europe and the pacific region. that's why i was able to get together with senator graham and senator inhofe to work on a way that we could get those schools fixed, because they're crumbling. since a picture is worth a thousand words, i'll just show this picture from one of the schools. you can see the tiles on the roof just crumbling. we've had that in ou