There are still opportunities to think big in Washington.

Question: Is there room for vision in Washington?

Robert Menendez: I think so. I think so. I think you’re limited only by . . . I should say I think you create your own limitations. You know I look at things and say – whether it’s a problem or an opportunity – what should it be? What can it be? And then work from that backwards and say, “Okay, this is what it should be. This is what it can be. How do I make it be those things?” And I think that that . . . that’s the . . . it is an opportunity to think big. I think it’s an opportunity to, you know, to do things both at home and abroad; in which you can make, you know, significant change. I think we’re, you know . . . There are things we’ve been doing in this session of the Senate that move us in that direction of thinking big – that no child in America should go to sleep at night without health care coverage. The Senate just passed . . . the House passed it, gonna fight with the President about it, but ultimately that’s thinking big; that no child in America, the greatest country in the world, goes to sleep at night without healthcare. I think it’s thinking big that we could create real, quality educational opportunity for every student in America to go to college; to have the ability to work hard and give something back to their country. I think we just passed something that’s gonna move us in that direction. The greatest amount of resources for that effort in money since the G.I. Bill. And so I think there’s opportunities to think big. It’s just a question of do you create your own limitations.

Recorded on: 9/12/07