Paul Tonko: “And I agree with you. I think that the brinkmanship that was utilized in the debate and the development of a response to…”

“And I agree with you. I think that the brinkmanship that was utilized in the debate and the development of a response to the debt ceiling crisis was an attachment of bells and whistles and all sorts of extraneous materials that were being applied in an inappropriate way. We needed to move forward and address an order of crisis. America knows that, they understand they play by the rules and you pay your bills. But it was this attempt to weaken a process, and it was an attempt to stall and delay and make a political statement at the expense of having our then credit rating downgraded by S&P. So the outcome here was a devastating one. And, you know, it is really unfortunate that we're not heeding the need out there. I believe the American public has been stating emphatically they want solutions. They want us to come up with a response to an economic crisis. They want to know how we're going to move forward with this idea economy, innovation economy, clean energy economy. They want to see us move toward energy independence. They want to see us addressing transformation of the economy. They want advanced manufacturing that requires training of workers that begins with education investments, all of these things. They want us to develop solutions. They don't want paralysis. They don't want this divide, this great divide. They don't want the partisanship. They want partnership. They want solutions. We saw what happened when you can advance solutions in this House.…”