Barbara Boxer: “I am hardly ever at a loss for words, as you all know. I was so touched tonight. A terrible tragedy happened in my State…”

“I am hardly ever at a loss for words, as you all know. I was so touched tonight. A terrible tragedy happened in my State yesterday. You all know about the emotions of that and then the emotions of this. I am going to set aside the emotions of the tragedy and talk to my friends here. What we did was the impossible dream. It was, in many ways, a very long and winding road to get to this night. People worked together who never thought they would find that common ground. We found it. The reason we found it is we were willing to set aside the misperceptions I think we had on so many fronts and recognized that our people needed this badly. As I often say, if you want to buy a house and you go to the bank and the bank says ``Oh, you have great credit, but I can only give you a mortgage for 6 months,'' you are not going to buy the house. You are not going to build a major road if you are worried about the funding. What we have done is extraordinary. For the first time in 17 years, we have a long bill. We have a bill that lasts 5 years. I have to say--and I did not think of it--I think the pay-for was brilliant, the major pay-for. There are others who don't like it. Many people on my side said we should look at the gas tax. I looked at the gas tax. I agreed with the chamber of commerce on the gas tax, but I am only one of six people here who probably voted for it. When you come up against these barriers, you need to be very creative.…”