We can change the alarming rate at which our government spends and borrows money by re-examining the role of government and the role that we as individuals have in society. It is time to regain control of federal spending by reviewing the federal programs we have legislated over the past seventy years. We need to examine which ones are still valid, public-serving initiatives, which ones need reform, and which need to be discontinued. Various people have proposed good ideas. We do not lack solutions to overcome these challenges-what we need is the leader who has the courage and the creativity to make the solution work.

It is time to get the American people involved on a meaningful level. As a country we have to work together for a sustained period of time; but, if we start today, we can gradually implement the needed reforms that will protect us from a future disaster. We will all have to sacrifice, and we will all have to lead in our own homes, our own jobs, and our own families.

Under current trends, our nation is on the road to a financial disaster that will reach across all political spectrums of society. We must achieve a sustainable budget and we must have a plan to cope with the mounting liability that we are inheriting from federal spending and borrowing. We can turn our nation's future around by limiting our spending and becoming fiscally responsible. Now is the time to make the future of our children and our grandchildren a future of hope. It is time for leaders who speak up and speak the truth, who have a long-term view, and who can recognize the realities and work for the solutions. It will require real budget controls and real limits on spending. It will require real leaders. Overcoming the challenge is not easy or popular, but it is right.