Paul Tonko: “Representative Kaptur made an interesting point that there was a sense of vision when they pursued the efforts with the…”

“Representative Kaptur made an interesting point that there was a sense of vision when they pursued the efforts with the St. Lawrence Seaway. There was a sense of vision in my district as a donor area and in Representative Higgins' when Governor DeWitt Clinton perceived this Erie Canal as a way to transport goods and to open up the westward movement to spark an industrial revolution. That gave birth not only to a port called New York City, but birth to a necklace of communities called mill towns that became the epicenters of invention and innovation. So it's that spark of vision that is the first step. And we're going to denounce any of these creative opportunities to invest in nation- building by denouncing it as socialism? Was President Eisenhower a Socialist? Were all those who preceded him or followed him that came up with these great visions--a space program that gave us an unleashing of technology? No, they were thinkers. They were visionaries. They were leaders. That's the first step. And then we develop policy from that vision. We tether it into real terms, and then we invest in the implementation of that policy. That's America at her finest. If we look back at the Erie Canal history, when they did that, it wasn't easy times. They were tough times. They were tough economic times. And so they stepped up to the plate and said, We're going to do this. It's not easy to launch, but we're going to do it because it's the way through the tough times.…”