Out Sourcing jobs

Fiorina outsourced jobs, bought a yacht !

Boxer v. Fiorina- what is at stake?

Boxer v. Fiorina
In considering this important election, we should clearly look at the recent voting record. 

Given the economic crisis caused by finance capital, the stimulus was too small, and had too many tax cuts in it.  It was small because  Republicans blocked a larger stimulus from  getting through the Senate.   But, Boxer and the Senate passed  the biggest jobs bill in U.S. history, and the biggest investment in public goods (schools, teachers, roads, bridges, clean energy, firefighters, cops, broadband, etc.). The health care bill had big flaws, including the lack of a public option. We should have gone for Single Payer to save money and to improve the system.  But, Single Payer could not get through the Senate- Republicans would not even allow it to come up for a vote.  Obama  and the Democrats  including Barbara Boxer succeeded at extending health  coverage to virtually everyone and reining in major insurance abuses (on pre-existing conditions, lifetime caps, etc.).  Every  prior Democratic President for almost 60 years had tried and failed.

The financial reform bill is a good start. There were very significant victories in reining in the financial sector, and the Administration went the right direction on financial regulation .  ( See my essay “The best way to rob a bank is to own one.” )  Boxer and the Democrats passed the bill. The financial reform bill should have been stronger, re-implementing Glass-Steagall type protection, but the Republican Senators would not permit it, and they would not permit a vote on it.

Democrats and progressives  won a major victory on, and expansion of, the student loan program for college students.  The  Lilly Leadbetter equal pay law got passed, S-CHIP got expanded, the hate crimes bill got signed.    At the same time, major legislation has been stopped- climate change, immigration, and more jobs by Republicans.  And, U.S. combat forces are leaving Iraq.

Last week the Senate and the House passed, and President Obama signed an additional stimulus of 26 billion dollars to fund teachers, Medicaid, and public service jobs.  (see posts below) None of this would have happened if Carly Fiorina was the second senator from California.

 We are now entering another slow down of the economy.  This slow down was caused by the Republicans refusal to pass additional stimulus money for jobs, health care, and public works.

Fiorina campaign seeks to segment the Latino vote

Carly Fiorina is running for Senate in California  against Barbara Boxer. I came across an ad on La Jornada ( a Mexico City left newspaper). It linked to a Latino focused web pages  for Fiorina.

The campaign must recognize the significant new energy and unity  in voting among Latinos is California produced by the Republican bruha  in Arizona over SB 1070, the Arizona equivalent of California’s Proposition 187 of 1994.  Seeking to segment the vote is a good idea if you are a Republican campaign manager.

The campaign page features lots of smiling family members, presumably Latinos.  It is light on responding to key issues.

There is among Latino voters a traditional split, liberal on economic issues but more conservative on social issues. The  polling differences on these issues are cited on the web pages.   The Fiorina web page works this split with skill.  It focuses on  traditional marriage, anti abortion, and is linked to a severe assault on LGTB issues.

Here is the web page: Carly Fiorina campaign video; targeted at Latinos.

http://www.tusvalores.com/

She wants you to vote your values.

Note, it is put up by AmericanPrinciplesinaction.org a very conservative group.  This raises an interesting question. 

Did Americanprinciples coordinate with the Fiorina campaign ? The Tus Valores Campaign is an independent expenditure of American Principles in Action, a 501(c)(4) organization.

The group  is permitted, as a result of the Supreme Court Citizens United  decision, to make independent communications that support the election or defeat of federal candidates, but doing so may trigger FEC reporting obligations. Once certain spending thresholds are met, they  would be required to report both the expenditures to make these communications and the donations

(including the identity of the donors) that were earmarked to support these expenditures.

There certainly are differences within the Latino community over issues of immigration. Most polling show Latinos in favor of a comprehensive approach to immigration including allowing those already here to gain eventual citizenship.  Over 5 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented people here have U.S. citizen children.  Dividing these families is unacceptable in most Latino communities as it is with the Catholic church.

Since this issue is front and center, then what does the Fiorina campaign say about immigration on these pages?  Only, “Carly Fiorina showed her resolve in support of common-sense immigration policies during the Republican Primary and represents a real opportunity to pass a reform bill.”

That is, Fiorina, in a campaign targeted toward Latinos, says she is in favor of immigration reform. Even John Mc Cain, Arizona Governor Brewer, and Pete Wilson say that.  The issue is , which reforms? To favor the Republican routes to reform, including the support for the Arizona law, and now support for amending the U.S. constitution to ban citizenship to certain children born here would offend the very voters she is trying to capture.  So, candidate Fiorina  is silent.

And, she doesn’t say where she stands on the current Republican campaign to extend the Bush tax cuts for the super rich.  Republican Senators have blocked efforts to hire teachers and police, to extend health care, to provide stimulus jobs, but they are in favor of protecting the Bush era tax cuts of the super rich.

Note, the SusValores page is linked to several groups including the National Organization for Marriage, which is promoting this campaign to fire an administrator in the Obama department of education over his writings on the LGBT community.

http://www.expeljennings.org/

Teachers' jobs blocked by Republican vote

Your vote in November will make a difference; Boxer vs Fiorina. Republicans on Thursday again filibustered and stopped the effort to provide funds to schools to stop some 130,000 layoffs of teachers.  (see below)

“Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a bill to aid small businesses with expanded loan programs and tax breaks, in a procedural blockade that underscored how fiercely determined the party’s leaders are to deny Democrats any further legislative accomplishments ahead of November’s midterm elections.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/us/politics/30cong.html?_r=1&hpw

All Democrats voted to break the filibuster, all Republicans supported the filibuster.  California Senator Boxer voted to break the filibuster. How would Republican candidate Carly  Fiorina have voted?

A new Senate amendment was to be introduced to the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act (HR 5297) that would provide the $10 billion in emergency federal funding to offset local budget cuts and help avert more than 130,000 educator layoffs. This federal aid is desperately needed and is our last chance to achieve it in Congress before the start of the school year. A vote on this amendment was blocked by the threat of filibuster.