MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Ukraine

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Joining me tonight on the Ed Show, Senator Barbara Boxer of California. Senator, good to have you with us tonight.

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: Let`s talk about roads first.

BOXER: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: You know, Republicans just can`t wait to do -- intervention in Ukraine, they don`t care ho much how much we spend. But on the domestic side, they`re tight with the dollar.

The House passed a short-term fix on the highway funding trust fund. Why don`t you support that in its current version? What do you have against that? Where are you?

BOXER: Here is the problem. We need to fund roads, bridges for -- and transportation systems for a multi-year period. I say six years.

And my committee, the Environment and Public Works on bipartisan basis, Ed which is rare, not a dissenting vote. And we have on the committee, you know, James Inhofe and Bernie Sanders, and we have Jeff Sessions, and we have Sheldon Whitehouse, and we have Senator Vitter, and me, and others.We decided, it`s very important to fund transportation and we voted out a six-year bill. The next step, we have to fund it. And that`s not in the jurisdiction of my committee and it went over to the Senate Finance Committee and the House on Ways and Means Committee. And House, Ways and Means Committee acted, and they acted on the package that is the worst possible thing.

They, short up (ph) the trust fund instead of doing it before the end of this year, so we can act this year and give some certainty. They did it till May, which is right up against the next construction season and they use gimmick like pension smoothing--

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

BOXER: -- which we`ve used that before, but you know what? This is giving the companies another five years where they don`t have to fund their employee`s pensions--

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

BOXER: -- to keep the highway trust fund going for a few months. Ed, you talked about all of the challenges we`re facing in the world that we can`t control, we can control this.

SCHULTZ: No doubt. And Senator--

BOXER: You know, we can.

SCHULTZ: -- your thoughts on the gas tax. And that has been raised over 20 years.

BOXER: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: Is this part of the problem?

BOXER: Well, it`s definitely part of problem because what happens is, our bridges are aging. You know, we have 70,000 bridges that are deficient, a quarter of our bridges -- more than that even are over 50-years old. And, you know, speaking from my view point, you get a little older, you need a little more maintenance, you know, I think that certainly true of their infrastructure.

The bottom line here is that what the House did is a very sad situation. They keep the can down the road. They know that cliche but that`s what they did. Instead of dealing with it, this dealing which is what we support are shorter term extension. We get to the lame duck after the elections behind us and have some guts.

Now, you want to talk about the gas tax. It was started -- as my history reading goes by Herbert Hoover then it was used for highways by the Dwight Eisenhower.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

BOXER: Then it was raised by Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton -- there is no reason why we can`t take a look at this gas tax. A few cents will make a difference.

SCHULTZ: No doubt.

BOXER: And we can do what we have to -- and by the way there`s 700,000 unemployed construction workers. Those workers would fill, you know, seven super bowl stadiums.

We need to put people to work, we need to fix the bridges, the highways, keep the transport systems going--

SCHULTZ: OK.

BOXER: It`s in our control. We just need a little courage.

SCHULTZ: That is what it is. And of course, would be a political ramifications to do it, make the President look good and they don`t want that to happen.

Senator, you`re on foreign Malaysians, I want to go to this --

BOXER: Yes.

SCHULTZ: The State Department says, that their intelligence suggest that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down by a Ukrainian separatist.

And they have no direct evidence that the Russian government was involved.Now, as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, what do you think our response should be?

BOXER: Well, I think you ratchet up the sanctions on Putin. We know that there`s separatist are only in business because of Vladimir Putin.

Let`s be clear. It`s pretty obvious. And the President is trying to this. And I think it`s time for the Europeans to just recognize, they`ve got to look toward what`s right here. I mean, look how many people from the--

SCHULTZ: They`re not being though enough?

BOXER: -- we`ll, no they`re not being tough enough. And I know their hearts are breaking because so many Europeans went down in that plane.

SCHULTZ: So, what should they do?

BOXER: They should work with the President and ratchet up these sanction, so that they really bite, bite, bite.

We need to stop the fighting over there. There is a government there, and they have to be respected --

SCHULTZ: So--

BOXER: They had an election and that`s what ought to be front and center--

SCHULTZ: Is the President too far out on an island on this? He needs more support from Europe as you say it.

BOXER: Well, of course. Europe should be taking the lead. The fact is
this in Europe`s backyard.

America, we can push, we can do -- and he`s going to do more sanctions from this country, our own country. That`s clear.

But the Europeans, I think they`re coming along slowly, slowly. The separatist did it. We know that, and we know who support the separatist. And we know who has waging (ph) and power over the separatist, it`s Vladimir Putin.

SCHULTZ: OK.

BOXER: And Russia and they need to suffer from some sanctions here and stop what they`re doing.

SCHULTZ: You want the President to go further on sanctions?

BOXER: I do. Well, the President wants to go further on sanctions as well. And I think it`s just the question of Europe getting some backbone. I understand they need energy.

But you know what? Putin needs them to buy that energy.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

BOXER: So, I don`t think they should cower in a corner. They have to come out there and fight for what`s right.

SCHULTZ: Senator Boxer, no maintenance, you`re perfect.

BOXER: Very cute. Well, thank you very much.

SCHULTZ: You`re perfect. Don`t change anything. Don`t change anything. You are perfect.

Senator Barbara Boxer, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

BOXER: Thanks.

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