Our Fiscal Ruin And Resulting Loss Of

We Hoosiers Hold To Some Quaint Notions. Some Might Say We 'cling' To Them, Though Not Out Of Fear Or Ignorance. We Believe In Paying Our Bills. We Have Kept Our State In The Black Throughout The Recent Unpleasantness, While Cutting Rather Than Raising Taxes, By Practicing An Old Tribal Ritual - We Spend Less Money Than We Take In.

I Refer, Of Course, To The Debts Our Nation Has Amassed For Itself Over Decades Of Indulgence. It Is The New Red Menace, This Time Consisting Of Ink. We Can Debate Its Origins Endlessly And Search For Villains On Ideological Grounds, But The Reality Is Pure Arithmetic.

We Are Tasked To Rebuild Not Just A Damaged Economy, And A Debt-ridden Balance Sheet, But To Do So By Drawing Forth The Best That Is In Our Fellow Citizens. If We Would Summon The Best From Americans, We Must Assume The Best About Them. If We Don't Believe In Americans, Who Will?

When Business Leaders Ask Me What They Can Do For Indiana, I Always Reply: 'make Money. Go Make Money. That's The First Act Of Corporate Citizenship. If You Do That, You'll Have To Hire Someone Else, And You'll Have Enough Profit To Help One Of Those Non-profits We're So Proud Of.'

When They Call The Slightest Spending Reductions 'painful', We Will Say 'if Government Spending Prevents Pain, Why Are We Suffering So Much Of It?' And 'if You Want To Experience Real Pain, Just Stay On The Track We Are On.'