Paul Tonko: “Representative Garamendi, thank you for bringing us together in a manner that allows us to look closely at the American…”

“Representative Garamendi, thank you for bringing us together in a manner that allows us to look closely at the American economy, the American Dream, and the decline of manufacturing, which represents a serious concern for workers across the country and which represents a serious concern for communities as we engage in this effort to grow jobs and retain jobs. It's important to look at the statistics out there. Where was the focus? Where was the emphasis on job creation and job retention? Could we do a better sort of stewardship, if you will, of our resources and our policies? I believe the answer is a resounding, yes, we can do better. As was made mention by Representative Garamendi, it is important for us to acknowledge that the work done here--the challenges, the crises that face us--can also be transformed into opportunities. The opportunity here for this great Nation--for the powerful force that we are in the global economy--is to reignite the American Dream, to reignite that dream with the underpinnings of support that come through three separate dynamics. The first is engaging in a small business comeback, inspiring that comeback because small business, the pulse of American enterprise, is replete with a history of mom-and-pop operations, of ancestors that built their American Dreams into an ideas economy, into a service economy that enabled small business to become that very promising enterprise.…”