Guest column: Todd Young

I hold a degree from IU. Bloomington is my home. I’m proud to be part of this community and excited to have this space to talk about my campaign to represent you in Congress.

The cynics, however, will probably say I’m wasting my time.

After all, poll after poll indicates that college-age voters are increasingly pessimistic about politics and disenchanted with our electoral process — and besides, young Americans have voted increasingly for Democratic candidates during the past three elections.

But truth be told, if ever there was a time to forge new ground and defy conventional wisdom, the coming election is it.

Young Americans need to participate in this election and prove the pundits, and the polls, wrong.

That’s because the things at stake in November are so directly important to your future.

Right now, about 20percent of young Americans are unemployed. One out of every five Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are without a job. That’s the job market that will be waiting for you after graduation.

Our government is spending recklessly and borrowing to pay for it all. That’s your money they are wasting. Our national debt is $13.6 trillion and climbing.

With my opponent’s help, President Barack Obama has contributed $3 trillion to this total in his first two years in office (his Republican predecessor, much to my chagrin, racked up $4 trillion during his eight years in office) and will add $11 trillion more during the decade.

You’re the ones who will have to pay back that loan with interest while you are raising families, launching careers and paying mortgages.

And the current course set by our government is one where your life decisions will likely be outsourced to and controlled by “experts” in Washington, D.C.

We have become accustomed to enjoying rapid innovation and unprecedented access to goods and services at the simple stroke of a key.

But our new statist economic model will make obtaining even vital services such as health care akin to waiting in line at a badly run Department of Motor Vehicles.

Meanwhile, the steady stream of innovations that have made our lives better, healthier and happier will go dry, and our ability to protect society’s least fortunate will be jeopardized.  

There is a better way.

I’m running for Congress because I’m truly worried about the course our country is taking.
 
I will openly admit that both Democrats and Republicans have sent us in this dangerous direction. Both parties have abused our trust and pursued harmful agendas.

However, the policies coming out of Washington right now are endangering our future prosperity as never before.

If elected, I will go to Congress to reverse these trends — to ensure our federal government stops spending our future and begins living within its means and to pursue policies that will propel economic growth and create jobs.

I will provide an alternative to our current leadership and work to restore balance in Washington.

I have four small children. I refuse to leave them a less prosperous, less powerful America.

And I have no desire to look them in the eye years from now and explain how they inherited a once great and thriving country whose best days have long since past — all because we did nothing to stop its slide.

Every evening when I leave my Bloomington office to head home, I’m always moved by the sight of our campaign volunteers, many of whom are IU students, willingly working long hours with no pay.

They do this not because they are Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, but simply because they understand the damage Washington’s reckless spending and growing power will do to their chances of success.

They refuse to be disinterested bystanders sitting in their dorm rooms with the blinds drawn.

Neither should you. Please join us.