Those ‘great things’ invariably cost lots of government money.  Many in Mr. Penry’s party today would view President Eisenhower—Republican and ‘father’ of the US Interstate HWY System—as suspect for his ‘big government’ ‘tax and spend’ ways.  After all both roads and wars cost money and Mr. Eisenhower—like most responsible politicians back then—believed in paying for both.  The two wars we have most recently been—or remain—in were both initially conceived and run off budget (possibly to maintain a false veneer of fiscal conservatism) and highway funds as well as the investment in other ‘great things’ are on the chopping block. 

All that said, I read Mr. Penry’s column to mean someone wants a tax-funded dam or other project built, and we will soon hear about it.