Elizabeth Warren: "It's tough" and "Republicans are not helping"

(CBS News) Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren waged a strong defense of President Obama Tuesday morning, acknowledging that people are still "hurting" and asserting that Republicans are blocking progress.

"It's tough out there," Warren said on "CBS This Morning," and she added that "Republicans are not helping us get back."

Warren said Republicans in Congress opposed numerous efforts to pass additional jobs bills to pay for public sector workers and infrastructure.

"What did the Republicans say? They said no, they said no and they said no," she said.

In response to the question of whether people are better off than they were when President Obama entered office four years ago, a question that has caused the Obama campaign consternation in recent days, she said, "We always have to remember what it was like really four years ago." She noted that "markets were crashing... and the auto industry was about to plunge over a cliff."

"It was a long fall and that means it's a lot to try and get it back," the longtime consumer advocate told "CTM" co-hosts Norah O'Donnell and Charlie Rose.

"I think the better question is what is your vision for going forward," she said of this presidential election. Warren added that Mitt Romney wants to cut taxes for the wealthy and cut funding for investments while the president wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and invest in education and infrastructure.

"You've got these two very different competing visions of our future and the real question is what's going t make you better off four years from now."