Sen. Barbara Boxer: The Keystone Pipeline Will Cause Cancer

Sen. Barbara Boxer wants to add a new element to the Keystone XL oil pipeline debate: its effects on health.

The California Democrat claims negative health effects from the proposed pipeline's development were ignored by the State Department's environmental impact review.

"The Environmental Impact Statement was woefully inadequate when it came to exploring human impacts of the pipeline," Boxer said Wednesday at a press conference held with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and anti-Keystone XL activists and environmentalists.

She said Keystone would add pollutants to the air that will increase the likelihood of people getting cancer or heart disease.

"I do believe the public health impacts are something that average people can really relate to because they know cancer is the second leading cause of death in this country — heart disease is number one — and all of this filthy air contributes to both of those," she said.

Boxer and Whitehouse will send a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry detailing the health impacts of the pipeline, which they hope he will consider when determining whether Keystone XL is in the nation's best interests.

The State Department is currently in the national determination phase of its review, which lasts for 90 days. While the department's environmental analysis said the pipeline developed by TransCanada would not significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions, Boxer claims more information is needed on the human impacts.

"As tar sands oil flows to our gulf coast refineries it will increase toxic pollution that already plagues communities like Port Arthur Texas, which is near many refineries that will process tar sands," Boxer said.

Boxer said hearings on the topic are a possibility but nothing is set in stone. Her goal is to get President Obama and Kerry's attention.

Via: Fox News

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Boxer: Obama’s Keep-Your-Plan Pledge ‘Absolutely a Fact’

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said on Thursday that President Barack Obama's oft-repeated pledge that under Obamacare people would be allowed to keep their health care plans if they liked them was “absolutely a fact”--so long as the plans “met the standards” set by Obamacare, that is.

CNSNews.com asked Boxer: “After President Obama signed the ACA he said that if you like your health care plan you will keep it. No one can take that away from you.”

“I think everyone knows he said that,” Boxer said, speaking shortly before Obama announced that he would let insurance companies renew policies for existing customers in the individual market through 2014, even if those policies don’t meet the law’s requirements.

“But is it true or false?” CNSNews.com asked.

Via: CNS News

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Democrat Bill Would Let Obama Increase Debt Limit; Congress Wouldn't Need to Vote

(CNSNews.com) - Democratic senators have introduced legislation that would grant President Barack Obama, and subsequent presidents, the authority to increase the legal limit on the federal government's debt unless Congress subsequently voted to disapprove the increase.

The bill would effectively take elected members of Congress off the hook for approving an increase in the debt. If the president certified that he was going to increase the debt limit, Congress could simply let him do it without taking a vote--and putting members on the record.

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 2 of the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to borrow money. It says: "Congress shall have power ... to borrow money on the credit of the United States."

Sens. Chuck  Schumer (D-N.Y.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) have introduced the Pay Our Bills Act, which would “permanently allow Congress to disapprove debt ceiling increases, instead of approving them.”

“When our debt comes within $100 billion of the debt limit, the president can send Congress a certification that the debt limit needs to be increased by a certain amount. Then Congress has 15 days to vote on a resolution of disapproval, just like we’re doing here in a few hours. This would allow Congress to fully debate and vote on the debt limit. A majority vote would carry in the House and Senate,” said Boxer in a press conference on Tuesday.

Via: CNS News

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Playing the Racism Card in the Shutdown

The government shutdown has brought out the worst in our political class but the same is true of pundits. It’s bad enough when politicians call each other terrorists and hostage takers or, as Barbara Boxer did yesterday, to compare them to those who commit domestic abuse. We know that’s what Democrats have always thought of Republicans and it takes very little provocation to get them up on their high horses seeking to turn a political disagreement, however bitter it might be, into one in which the other side is depicted as pure scum rather than merely wrong. But the willingness of liberals to speak as if all those who disagree with Barack Obama are, almost by definition, racists, is about as low as it gets.

The attempt to paint the Tea Party as a warmed over version of the Ku Klux Klan has been a staple of liberal commentary for over three years. The fact that race has played virtually no part in the argument about the stimulus, ObamaCare and the current shutdown/debt ceiling crisis doesn’t deter the left from branding its foes as motivated by prejudice rather than just by different views about which decent people can disagree. That’s the conceit of much of Roger Simon’s column in Politico yesterday. Jonah Goldberg rightly called it “fairly trollish” and used it as an example of how formerly respected reporters turned columnists expose the liberal bias of much of the mainstream press in an excellent post on National Review’s The Corner blog. I made a similar pointin a piece about a related topic on Sunday. But Simon’s piece exposes a different angle of the bias issue that I’d like to explore further.

The headline of his article was “Government shutdown unleashes racism” and it was accompanied by a photo of Tea Party demonstrator waving a Confederate flag in front of the White House at a demonstration this past weekend. But the headline promised more than Simon could deliver as the only points presented in the piece that backed up the accusation lodged in the headline was the flag and a comment made on radio by “Joe the Plumber,” the conservative pseudo celebrity of the 2008 campaign who said in his blog that America needed a “white Republican president” to replace Barack Obama. Other than these two items, Simon’s piece was just the standard denunciation of the Republican stand on the shutdown and it was that theme rather than racism riff that was its substance.

Via: Commentary

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Boxer Accuses GOP of Acting Like Domestic Abusers

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Sen. Barbara Boxer likened GOP lawmakers to people who abuse their spouses on Monday when discussing the current government shutdown and the looming debt limit deadline.

The California Democrat, who, like most in her party, blames the lack of government funding and current impasse over raising the debt ceiling on Republicans who have insisted on passing measures aimed at dismantling the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

First she compared the current budget crisis to walking down the street on a nice day and then deciding to bash yourself in the head with a rock.

Then she said:

“It’s a self-inflicted wound. I never questioned, never questioned the fact that Republicans, Democrats, and independents love this country. Love this country. I never questioned it. But I have to say, when you start acting like you’re committing domestic abuse, you’ve got a problem. ‘I love you dear, but you know, I’m shutting down your entire government. I love you dear, but I’m going to default and you’re going to be weak.’ Something is dreadfully wron

Via: Roll Call

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TED CRUZ: Barbara Boxer, you're a disgrace.

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Sen. Barbara Boxer Objects to Sen. Ted Cruz's Resolution to Investi...

Via: Twitter

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Barbara Boxer pledges to push carbon tax as part of tax reform

After being rebuffed on the carbon tax, California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said she will try to pass it again through tax reform.

Boxer’s carbon tax bill from earlier this year does not have the 60 votes necessary to pass the Senate unimpeded, reports the Hill newspaper. She claims a carbon tax would enable other tax rates to be lowered.

“We are looking at tax reform to see whether there is a possibility to utilize a fee on carbon that could be returned to the people in dividend form, such as the Bernie Sanders bill and there are others like it. So, we are really mostly working toward the tax reform issue,” Boxer said.

Republicans have vehemently opposed the idea of a carbon tax “swap” where certain tax rates — like corporate or income tax rates — are lowered in exchange for implementing a gradually rising tax on carbon emissions.

“Other countries are running from similar policies, the most recent example being Australia’s rejection of a carbon tax in their last election,” said Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter. “That’s because a carbon tax is clearly a failed idea that could significantly ruin any chance for the United States to have a full economic recovery.”

A spokesman for Michigan Republican Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the chairman opposes a carbon tax “either as a standalone or as part of a larger package.”

At the beginning of his second term, President Obama called on Congress to pass market-based solutions to lower U.S. carbon dioxide emissions or he would use his executive authority to tackle the issue himself.

Soon after, Boxer and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced carbon tax legislation to slap a gradually rising tax on carbon emissions that would start at $20 per ton in 2014, rising to $35 per ton over twelve years.

Via: Daily Caller

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Vitter accuses Reid, Boxer of ‘bribery’ and ‘intimidation’

Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter on Friday accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of engaging in a “intimidation and payoff scheme” to “bribe” colleagues to vote a certain way on a bill, after it was reported Friday morning that Democrats were trying to rekindle Vitter’s 2007 prostitution scandal to stop him from opposing an energy bill.

Politico first reported that Democrats were drafting legislation that would deny any lawmaker government contributions to their health care, a perk of life in Congress, if there is “probably cause” that he or she solicited prostitutes.

In 2007, Vitter’s phone number was found in an investigation into the “DC Madam” prostitution ring, and he apologized for committing a “sin,” but did not elaborate.

The draft legislation is in retaliation for Vitter holding up a floor debate this week on an energy efficiency bill by trying to attach an amendment to the bill that would take away government contributions to lawmakers’ health-care coverage.

Another version of the bill would take away the benefits from anyone who voted to end such benefits, meaning Vitter, and anyone who voted for his amendment, would lose that government contribution.

Vitter said this is an attempt at “bribery” and “threatening their colleagues in the Senate with increased personal health-care costs if they do not vote a certain way on a particular amendment proposed by me concerning the 2010 Affordable Care Act.”

“Even if the proposed amendment is not actually introduced,” Vitter wrote in a letter to the Ethics Committee, “the fact that such legislation has not only been drafted, but also released to the press, has already induced the intended intimidating effect.”

He asked that the Ethics Committee launch an investigation into Reid and Boxer. He asks that Boxer, who chairs the committee, recuse herself from the investigation, and suggests she be removed from the committee if found guilty of an ethics violation.

Via: Daily Caller

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SEN. BOXER: RAISE MINIMUM WAGE TO $10 AN HOUR

On Monday, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said she wants the federal minimum wage raised to $10 an hour. The current minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. 

“We need to raise the minimum wage. That will make a huge difference. …People are struggling,” she said to Ed Schultz on The Ed Show, according to Politico. 

 “The difference between the very wealthy and the working poor has grown. We raise that minimum wage and we move forward with the vision of this president that we have, which is everyone pays their fair share" of taxes.

Boxer spoke about "fairness" and added, “I’ve spoken to people in California who earn a lot who were very anxious to help the country and their state. We’ve proven the point, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats.”

Via: Breitbart

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Jewish senator lashes out at Netanyahu for attacking Obama on Iran

Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) says she’s deeply disappointed over remarks that call into question US support for Israel

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Barbara Boxer, a top Jewish U.S. senator and the sponsor of major pro-Israel legislation, blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for lashing out at President Obama on Iran.

“I write to you as one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress to express my deep disappointment over your remarks that call into question our country’s support for Israel and commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a letter sent Wednesday in a rare instance of a pro-Israel lawmaker making public an unhappiness with an Israeli leader. “Your remarks are utterly contrary to the extraordinary United States-Israel alliance, evidenced by President Obama’s record and the record of Congress.”

Boxer apparently was referring to Netanyahu’s remarks in Jerusalem on Tuesday in which he decried a lack of clarity from the “international community” — seen in Israel as code for the Obama administration — for failing to make clear what would trigger a U.S. strike on Iran as that country reportedly nears obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“The world tells Israel, ‘Wait, there’s still time’,” Netanyahu said in English at a ceremony in which he greeted Bulgaria’s prime minister. “And I say, ‘Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

Boxer, rebuking Netanyahu, cited a law signed by Obama this summer that enhances security cooperation between Israel and the United States. Boxer authored the legislation. She wrote that the law addresses many of Israel’s top security priorities, including extending loan guarantees to Israel and increasing the U.S. weapons stockpile in Israel, “which is available for Israel’s use in the event of a crisis.”

The California lawmaker listed other actions by Obama, including his leading increased isolation of Iran and his recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself as it sees fit against any Iranian threat.

Via:The Times of Israel

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