Boxer describes herself as anti-war, anti-big business, pro-women
and a pro-environmental rights crusader. She is frequently pegged as
one of the more liberal Democrats in the Senate, voting with her
party more than 95 percent of the time in the 110th Congress.
In 2005, Boxer vowed to "use all the parliamentary tools I've
been given as a U.S. Senator" to delay the vote on Bush Supreme
Court nominee John Robert's confirmation. These and other tactics
have prompted critics to accuse her of being partisan and divisive.
The Economy
A proponent of fair trade, Boxer wrote March 2004 amendment that
would give companies that create American jobs a tax break. Those
who send jobs overseas would lose the credit.
Boxer supported the $700 billion financial bailout in fall 2008.
The Environment
As a senator and chair of the Environment and Public Works
Committee in the 111th Congress, Boxer has made an aggressive
pro-environment agenda one of her calling cards. True to form,
Boxer drives a Toyota hybrid
She led efforts to recover abandoned industrial sites and to ban
a gasoline additive that was a suspected carcinogen. She added an
in 1996 amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure
standards were established to protect children and other at-risk
populations. Boxer sharply criticized the Bush administration 's
rollback of clean air legislation and logging restrictions and
fought to stall most of its legislation on the environment.
When Boxer took the helm of the Environment and Public Works
Committee in January 2007, she made it clear that climate change
was at the top of her legislative agenda, even creating two
subcommittees to address the issue.
In 2007, she sponsored legislation that would require reductions
in greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2025, and to 80 percent below
1980 levels by 2050. The proposal was too radical for many of the
committee's senators still skeptical of climate change's effects.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla), the panel's ranking member who has
called climate change a hoax, opposed it. Boxer's proposals were
even criticized by Democrats like Sen. John F. Kerry, who tried to
forge climate-change compromise, as unattainable.
Boxer-Kerry 2009 Climate-Change Bill
In September 2009, Boxer and Kerry (D-Mass.) introduced their
version of a climate bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power
Act , outlining a strategy for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and
cutting U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The bill called for
stricter limitations on emissions than its counterpart in the
House, proposing a 20 percent decrease from 2005 levels by the year
2020.
The bill's other provisions included a cap-and-trade system that
would let industries auction off emission allowances, and an offset
program that would compensate farmers and landowners for practices
that help with carbon mitigation, like sustainable agriculture and
planting trees.
While Boxer said the bill would help invigorate the economy by
providing incentives for private investment, Inhofe accused Boxer
of using "a few corporate prostitutes" poised to make a
lot of money, as a way to advance the legislation.
In an unprecendented move, Inhofe led every Republican on the
Environment and Public Works panel to boycott the bill's October
2009 mark-up. After delaying the vote for days over their concerns,
Boxer called further analysis "duplicative and waste of
taxpayer dollars," and continued the mark-up with only
Democrats present. The bill passed out of the committee by an 11-1
vote, with no Republican members voting.
Iraq and National Security
Boxer was an anti-war activist in the 1960s, and she continues to
oppose military intervention. She voted against the first Gulf War
in the early 1990s and against authorizing the use of force in Iraq
in 2002.
In 2005, Boxer delayed the nomination of then-Bush National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to become secretary of state,
attacking her support of the Iraq war and questioning the veracity
of the statements Rice made in the lead-up to the Iraq conflict.
In 2007, Boxer again sharply criticized Rice's management of the
Iraq war, charging that Rice wouldn't pay the "ultimate
price" because she didn't have children who would be asked to
fight. Conservative media immediately attacked Boxer for what they
called a "low blow" and demanded that she apologize, but
Boxer refused.
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