BOXER CALLS OUT FIORINA ON FACTS

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Senator Boxer to meet with San Diego business leaders today on jobs plan; has support of dozens of technology leaders

July 6, 2010 (San Diego) – Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) has launched a “Fiorina Facts and Fiction” campaign to fight back against misleading statements made by her opponent, Republican Carly Fiorina.

Independent analyses of the facts by nonpartisan groups and major media outlets support claims by Boxer, who chairs the Senate Ethics Committee, that Fiorina has distorted data on jobs, climate change legislation, and impacts of the federal stimulus bill by relying on outdated or biased sources.

 

View a video of Senator Boxer outlining her jobs plan during a speech at the California Democratic convention.

 

Boxer will meet with San Diego business leaders this afternoon to discuss her jobs plan for California. Her candidacy is supported by more than two dozen technology leaders from high-tech, clean-tech and green-tech industries including the chief executives of Google, Oracle, Cisco, Adobe, Facebook, Netflix, Symantec, Akeena Solar, Aurora Biofuels, NextFuels, and many others. A check of Fiorina’s website showed no endorsements from any technology industry leaders—suprising given her past leadership of Hewlitt-Packard.
 

Fiorina, the former Hewlitt Packard CEO, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” recently that the $862 billion federal stimulus package has been a “failure” that did little for job creation. But an Associated Press analysis found that Hewlitt Packard alone received $22.5 million so far in stimulus money that was distributed to cities, school districts, hospitals and universities.
 

“Barbara Boxer has not delivered on its fundamental promise: creating jobs,” Fiorina said in a July 2nd media release, noting that the nation lost 7.9 million jobs since December 2007. She criticizes the federal stimulus package as ineffective, yet fails to note that most of those jobs were lost before the stimulus bill passed and before President Barack Obama was elected. She cites statistics indicating that 125,000 jobs were lost in May, but fails to note that many of those were temporary workers hired by the U.S. Census.
 

Fiorina , the only woman to head a Fortune-20 company, oversaw the COMPAQ-HP merger and was named most powerful woman in business by Forbes magazine in 1998. But later, following she was named 19th “Worst CEO in America” by Portfolio magazine after HP stock prices plummeted and she was forced to relinquish leadership by the board of directors. Boxer’s campaign manager, Rose Kapolczynski, further noted that under Fiorina’s leadership, HP laid of thousands of workers
 

Another inaccurate statement by Fiorina occurred on the Tom Sullivan radio show, where she stated that California receives just 78 cents back in federal spending for each dollar of taxes paid. But an analysis by the non-partisan, nonprofit California Budget Project found that California in fact receives $1.50 in federal spending for each dollar in taxes that we pay.
 

Fiorina apparently relied on a Tax Foundation study that was based on 2005 data. The five-year-old data was compiled long before the federal stimulus bill, which infused substantial federal funds into the California economy.
 

Another point of contention centers around Fiorina’s remarks on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” program, in which she said California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) has “killed jobs.” (An initiative backed by major oil companies to repeal AB 32 will be on the November ballot.) But the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office has discounted such claims by a conservative-backed study as biased. Legislative analyst Mac Taylor, as well as the California Air Resources Board, have both indicated that the new jobs created in clean/green energy sectors would offset any job losses in polluting industries.

AB 32 was enacted to clean up air pollution in California, where 91% of counties fail to meet clean air standards, according to the American Lung Association. It also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide incentives for development of clean, green sustainable energy industries. AB 32 is supported by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Google, eBay, and many other major businesses.

 

The measure has already attracted $9 billion in venture capital for clean-energy technology, AP has reported.
 

“For Fiorina, it just shows me how out-of-touch she is and that she’s just playing dirty politics with dirty oil,” said Warren Smith, the Republican chief executive at Clean World Partners.
Boxer’s jobs plan aims to make California a clean energy hub that will produce thousands of clean energy jobs as well as reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil while protecting residents from pollution.
The Senator’s plan includes ending tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas and instead, offering targeted tax cuts to give companies a financial incentive to create jobs here at home. She would also invest in infrastructure to create jobs making roads and bridges safer, as well as building high-speed rail.
 

Boxer also wrote legislation to recover bailout money used to give massive bonuses to Wall Street executives at a time when Wall Street financial institutions’ speculation helped “put seven million Americans out of work,” Boxer said. Her reform legislation passed 96-1.
 

The Senator also proposes to encourage more lending to small businesses, which create two-thirds of American jobs.

View ECM’s video of Senator Boxer presenting her jobs plan for California at the California Democratic Convention in April:   

 

View ECM’s prior coverage of Fiorina’s visit to San Diego

For more information on the candidates, visit their websites:
 

www.barbaraboxer.com
 

www.carlyforcalifornia.com
 


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