Is Washington broken?
>> last night's state of the union -- joining us this morning is senator barbara boxer . i want to talk to you about the state of the union last night, i just want to get your reaction to what all of us just witnessed on the house floor with congresswoman gabby giffords and the unified presence that came together, everybody there, to support her. not only is this a woman who everyone has sympathy for what she's gone through in her personal life , but she's someone who is highly respected for her public life .
>> well, it's a very, very touching moment. i watched every second of it. i served ten years in the house before i went to the senate, and i could tell you that last night at the state of the union when gabby came in, just the change in the whole feeling. i was sitting as it turned out on the republican side , just all of us as one feeling so strongly for her recovery and for her spirit and for her courage. and i think that as i watched it today and i saw everyone there, you know, united, together, infused with love and hope and a great spirit, i thought if we could just -- i wanted to thank gabby and say, thank you for sharing your recovery with us. she didn't have to do that, and what she did is she's lifted all of us, and if we can take just an ounce of that spirit and bring it into, you know, our hearing rooms and our markups and our floor debates and come together and meet each other halfway, wow, it would be something.
>> senator, obviously gabby giffords puts a face on personal tragedy in this country, one of the likes we haven't seen before, at least in recent memory, but you make a great example of this. if we can see that unification coming together, why can't we get that on other things knowing that this country needs to recover. there are many americans in peril economically. last night the president described how broken things are in washington .
>> i bet most americans are thinking the same thing right about now, nothing will get done in washington this year or next year or maybe even the year after that because washington is broken.
>> senator, are the divides in congress so deep right now for any real progress to be made in this election year? is it just a lame duck for everybody?
>> i think that if we are listening to the american people , if we are focused on, you know, how they regard us, they don't regard us well. we're at the bottom of the barrel here because we're not listening to each other, we're not working together. well, let me be specific, i happen to be the chairman of a committee that's responsible for the new highway bill , and my ranking member, jim inhofe and i are as far away from each other as you can get in terms of philosophy, but i can tell you we are working hand in glove on this bill and we are, you know, more than halfway there. it's 1.8 million jobs saved, up to 1 million new jobs created. we can do this, and in my committee we all came together. so there is hope. and i think when the president focused on what happens in the military when you're out on a dangerous mission such as this rescue mission we just learned about, of course, the incredible mission that resulted in the killing of bin laden , what we see is the teamwork. what we see is people watching each other's back as the president said. we got to work together. it's not about us. it's about the american people , and we can do so much. what i really liked about the president's speech last night is that everyone expected him to say, you know, forget it, guys, i'm walking away . he reached out again with one hand. with the other he said, look, we can't wait. if you guys can't get it together, i'm going to do everything i can, and i felt he had a certain optimism and eloquent optimism that contrasted to the -- i think the pessimism that you're hearing from the republican candidates for president.
>> senator barbara boxer , senator, nice to have you on with me this morning. i appreciate
