Paul Tonko: “Well, you talk about the challenges that we have out there, and you've listed what I think is a very aggressive agenda…”

“Well, you talk about the challenges that we have out there, and you've listed what I think is a very aggressive agenda but a doable agenda; and I think to reinforce the doability of it, the acceptability of it, perhaps we just need to recall some of our most golden moments in American history when we were challenged, when there was a need to respond with boldness, with vision, and with courage. We did it. My district is the donor area in a large way to the Erie Canal system. You talk about ports. It grew a port out of a little town called New York. It was that port of entry that then allowed for the shipping of goods up the Hudson into the Mohawk, into the Erie Canal system, a system that was brought about under tough times. The proponents of the canal said, Look, we're going to do this; it's a tough time, but let's invest. Did that prove successful? You'd better believe it. It sparked the westward movement and an industrial revolution, gave birth to a necklace of communities called mill towns. Mill towns became the powerful epicenters of invention and innovation. When President Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, led this Nation out of its worst economic crunch, it was about investing in America, putting people to work and developing projects that were essential to our hopeful tomorrow. It put a lot of people to work. It pulled us out of the doldrums of the Depression and allowed us to rise from the situation and provide, again, hope for this Nation.…”