SITREP

Ten years ago today, I was walking into the Sheriff’s Office in Brooksville.  I looked at the television and right then, I saw the second plane hit.  I thought it was a replay of the first.  It wasn’t.  That’s when I knew our country was under attack.

September 11th was our generation’s Pearl Harbor.  The enemy caught us with our guard down and the entire country paid a terrible price.  But since that day, thousands of young people, including my own three sons, have volunteered to join our nation’s Armed Forces.  Police and firefighters have stayed on the job, working to improve their readiness and preparation, and our nation’s intelligence community has worked around the clock and around the globe to bring terrorists to justice - all of our guardians willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice so that we may live in freedom and without fear. 

That is something we cannot forget on any day, but least of all on this day - the ten-year anniversary of September 11th.

The terrorists chose us because this country stands for something.  It is a beacon of hope and opportunity that shines all over the world.  Young people know that if they work hard and make sacrifices, there is no limit to their potential.  Not everybody on earth has that opportunity. 

I think what concerns me most is that the decisions Congress is making right now (or in some cases, refusing to make), will affect that very opportunity.  If we don’t get America’s debt under control, there will be no money left for roads and bridges, there will be no money for hurricane repair, there will be no money for our military, or for retirement benefits for seniors.  It is that severe.

This year, we will spend nearly four times more on interest payments on our debt than we will on Homeland Security (including disaster relief).  By the end of 2014, that figure will triple and we will be paying more in interest than we do on all of Medicare today.  And by the end of the decade, if nothing is done, each year we will spend more paying interest to China and other bondholders than we do on our entire defense system. 

That is not a future we want to leave our children.  It is this reality, whether they know the exact figures or not, that leads Americans to believe that our nation is a country in decline.  It is this reality that makes nearly three-quarters of Americans believe that the country is headed down the wrong path.  And it is this basic reality that makes us wonder whether our country will continue to be a beacon of hope and opportunity that shines into every dark corner of the world.

We can stop this decline and this fall we will try once more.  In 1997, Congress fell one vote short of passing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.  One vote!  We’re going to pass it this year because we must.

Every small business owner you talk to, and since I took on this new job, I’ve talked to a bunch, tells you that there are three things keeping them from hiring new workers:  loans are harder to come by than they were when times were good, they have no idea what new regulations are coming around the corner and what their tax burden will be when this enormous debt comes due, and most importantly, their customers are holding back.

When nearly 70% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track and the President is failing to turn it around, things cannot get begin to improve.  I don’t care how many hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowed money you spend, if families and small businesses aren’t confident that next year will be better than this year, and that this year will be better than last, they won’t take any chances.  They won’t go out and start a new product line or hire more workers.  Families won’t take chances by buying a new car or taking the kids out for dinner again.  They might need that money when their hours at work are cut back again. 

That’s the basic truth of America.  Our country has done better and gone further than any other in human history because we have a system that inspires confidence.  People know that if you try and fail here, its ok.  You can try again.  And people know that if you take a risk and succeed, the sky is the limit.  People all around the world know that America stands for freedom and opportunity and that no matter what, the government will never take those things away from you.

The sad truth now is that these things are at risk for the first time in generations.  If we do nothing, our grandkids will not have the same opportunities we had.  That means we have a choice about our future, and while having a choice at all is something people in other countries may envy, it isn’t worth much if we don’t have the courage to make it. 

From the Revolution and the Civil War, through the World Wars and the rest of the 20th century, Americans have never backed down from that great challenge. When Osama Bin Laden knocked us down on 9/11, we spent the next ten years hunting him down.  When we found him, we sent a couple of helicopters full of Navy SEALs to let him know how we felt about it.  The same is true with our economy.  If we fight through the urge to give up and instead get back to the basics of what makes this country great, we will persevere. 

It is our choice. We don’t have to confront every challenge.  We don’t have to get back up every time we get knocked down.  And we certainly don’t have to leave our kids a better world than the one our parents left us.  But do we really want to live in such a country?  Do we really want to be the generation that let America down?  I don’t know anybody who feels that way and that’s how I know that we’ll get through this too.