Barbara Boxer: “Yes. I say to Senator Hatch, we are going to have some tough votes coming up, and some people aren't going to like this…”

“Yes. I say to Senator Hatch, we are going to have some tough votes coming up, and some people aren't going to like this amendment or that amendment, but all I want to say is this: Let's keep our eye on what the prize is. Before the Senator leaves the floor, I want to share with him a photo. Last week, on the California-Arizona border, a bridge collapsed. Now, this bridge had been rated as structurally obsolete because so much traffic was going between California and Arizona--so much more traffic than was anticipated. We are so fortunate there were no deaths involved. To me this is the reason why we are doing what we are doing. We just can't sit back and wait for some great, wonderful future promise to come down from the sky and say: We have solved the funding problems. We want to find that solution. It is not at hand. So what the Senator did, which was so important--working with all the members of the Committee on Finance and across party lines with leadership and everybody else--was to put together sources of funding that he felt the Senate could live with. As it turned out, there were a couple of things that were a bridge too far--talking about bridges--for a couple of Members, and we are fixing those. We are fixing those, and it is good. But none of these pay-fors are delightful. They are all hard. But this is what we are trying to turn around.…”