By Dan Coats
Our federal government keeps swiping our already maxed out credit card, raising the credit limit and passing insurmountable debt on to your generation—putting you at a great disadvantage in an increasingly global marketplace.
As I’ve traveled the state, meeting countless Hoosiers concerned that we may be leaving future generations a weaker and less prosperous America than the one we inherited, one thing has been clear: Immediate action is necessary in order to revive our struggling economy.
Unfortunately, the United States suffers from massive government debt, which continues to erode the confidence of business owners and investors looking for signs of optimism amid economic uncertainty. We are-—and should be-—a beacon for the free world and the world’s economy. When the United States falters the world falters. We saw this during the global economic collapses of 2008 and 2009. But while America was not the only country to suffer great job loss and soaring deficits and debt, other countries are recovering at a better pace than the U.S. because they have resisted the dangers of massive government intervention.
The Obama administration has failed Hoosiers diligently searching for jobs in a troubled and uncertain marketplace. With nationwide unemployment at 9.6 percent and Indiana’s at 10.2 percent, the time to lift the burdens of the current administrations actions is long overdue.
What they have consistently forgotten is that the free market creates jobs, not the government. Entrepreneurs create jobs, not bureaucrats. Hoosiers create jobs, not Washington politicians.
The sober reality is that each and every day we add millions of dollars of debt onto the backs of future generations of Americans. Unless we act now to reverse these dangerous policies, an economic crisis of historic impact will be unavoidable—leaving you to clean up the mess.
It sounds easy, but for all the partisan rhetoric demanding a sudden halt to our nation’s spending spree, real solutions to reduce federal spending have eluded us.
My pledge is to oppose new spending programs that are not absolutely necessary unless paid for by offsetting spending cuts—even those programs that are politically popular. No short term political gain is worth the long term financial hardships future generations will face with growing debt.
I don’t suggest these actions will be easily accomplished, but they are necessary to secure the financial future of our nation. Inaction is not an option. Kicking the can down the road yet another year, to another Congress, for another president, to the next generation, is not what this country needs.
The choice in this election is yours, because it’s your generation that will be expected to pay the bill. We can continue to support the status quo of massive spending, ever increasing taxes, intrusive mandates and more burdensome regulations that have shackled America’s job creators, or we can change tracks and commit ourselves to a pro-growth agenda to get America back on track, Hoosiers back to work, and ensure a better future for the next generation of Americans.
As your Senator, I’ll fight to control spending and put America back on track toward fiscal solvency. You deserve nothing less, because you’re the ones who’ll be paying for it if we don’t.
Dan Coats is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. He served as U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005.
