00:00Good afternoon. My name is John Husted and I have the distinct honor of serving the great state of Ohio as one of its United States senators.
00:11Over the past 25 years, I have been blessed to serve the people of Ohio as a state representative,
00:19Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, and most recently as Lieutenant Governor.
00:24I am constantly reminded of the sacrifices generations of Americans and Ohioans have made in the hope that they will leave their country in a better place than they found it.
00:38And it is this pattern of sacrifice that I have also witnessed throughout my life growing up in the Midwest.
00:45So, Mr. President, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the sacrifices others have made that have led to this moment in time
00:54and our responsibility as Americans to our children and to our country.
01:00So let me start at the beginning, at least for me.
01:03I was born in 1967, which was part of one of the most turbulent decades in American history.
01:11My start in life reflected those turbulent times.
01:17My birth mother lost her husband in Vietnam, in the Vietnam War,
01:21and she found herself with multiple children to care for without anyone to share that responsibility.
01:29Then she learned that there was another baby on the way, and that baby was me.
01:35Well, I can never truly know how the circumstances affected her and why she made the choice that she did.
01:43I'd like to believe that out of a loving heart and full of courage and selflessness that she gave me a chance to be adopted.
01:52My birth certificate reports that I was born in Michigan, but let me reassure you I was made in Ohio.
01:58You see, during the fall of 1967, after two months in a foster home,
02:04I was blessed to become the first child of two humble, hardworking people from Northwest Ohio, Jim and Judy Husted.
02:14Even then, amid the protests and the upheaval happening across the nation,
02:20my parents were full of hope and optimism as they welcomed a new son into their home.
02:25They have always embodied the American tradition that each generation works and sacrifices today
02:34so that the next generation can climb higher mountains tomorrow.
02:39That's the example my parents set as I grew up on County Road J near Montpelier, Ohio.
02:46Life was not easy for them.
02:49Like many families from small towns in the industrial Midwest,
02:52we weathered factory closures.
02:55Several of my own family members lost their jobs
02:58when the machine tool factory they worked at shut down.
03:02But they'd faced hard times before.
03:05Tough times make you tough and resilient,
03:07resilient enough to uproot your family,
03:09start over, and keep sacrificing for your family's well-being.
03:14And that's what they all did.
03:15My parents worked hard and never wasted a penny.
03:20They routinely made choices that made their lives harder
03:25so that they could make my life and my brother and sister's life a little easier.
03:31What I saw growing up in rural Ohio was simple but powerful,
03:35and it characterized communities across this country too.
03:41People worked long hours forfeiting comfort and leisure
03:44so that their families and especially their children
03:47could enjoy more security and prosperity than they had.
03:53These diligent men and women may not have called their daily responsibilities
03:57on the factory floors or in the fields the American dream,
04:00but that's what it was.
04:01That's what they were striving to achieve.
04:05I believe this love for family and nation,
04:08this aspirational hope that we have,
04:11has driven Americans' generations to risk their lives and livelihoods
04:16so that we could create the freest, most prosperous country in the world.
04:20The early settlers didn't sail across the Atlantic's high seas for fun and adventure.
04:25They came to build a legacy of opportunity and liberty
04:28that their homeland had denied them.
04:31But nothing guaranteed their future.
04:34They earned it through courage, toil, and sacrifice.
04:38Mr. President, I know this.
04:40The noise of the 24-hour news cycle
04:42that makes it easy to lose perspective when you're here in Washington.
04:46I know it does.
04:49But if you step into the Capitol Rotunda
04:51and you look up at the storied paintings all around that dome,
04:56you'll be reminded of an enduring pattern.
04:57Americans built this nation through personal sacrifice,
05:02often at a steep human cost.
05:05In 1620, the settlers at Plymouth faced hunger, disease, and death
05:10as they launched into a new world where they hoped to establish religious freedom.
05:15In 1776, their descendants picked up that torch
05:20by risking everything to break free of a monarchy.
05:24When the founders signed the Declaration of Independence,
05:27they indeed pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor,
05:32a wager not just for themselves,
05:34but on behalf of their children and future generations.
05:37At Valley Forge, liberty nearly froze to death.
05:42But those who endured did so to form a more perfect union.
05:46They fought not just for freedom,
05:48but for justice and peace and the blessings of liberty,
05:51for their posterity.
05:53That's us.
05:54In 1861, Americans turned on one another
05:58so they could preserve the nation and abolish slavery.
06:02They paid with blood.
06:05Then, they returned to their fields and their towns
06:07and sought to rebuild a more cohesive nation,
06:11one capable of innovation, lasting growth, and a new hope.
06:16By the early 1900s, Americans led a second revolution.
06:22This, the Industrial Revolution.
06:24In a free nation, an economy, workers and entrepreneurs built new industries,
06:29fought for fairer working conditions,
06:31and laid the foundations for prosperity that we enjoy today.
06:37Immigrants came through Ellis and Angel Islands
06:39with hope in their hearts and the willingness to work hard,
06:43and America embraced them.
06:46In World War II, young men crossed oceans to fight tyranny.
06:50Women stepped onto factory floors to build the arsenal of victory.
06:55And when it was all over,
06:57they followed their forefathers' faithfulness
07:00by coming home and building schools, churches, and businesses.
07:05In other words, Mr. President, a future.
07:08The greatest generation carried that burden for their children and for ours.
07:12The men and women who fought and endured daily hardships
07:16during the Second World War understood what I worry many Americans nearly have forgotten,
07:24which is the heavier the load you choose to carry,
07:28the higher you can hold your head.
07:30And doing what's noble builds confidence.
07:33I believe that's true of people and of nations.
07:39For nearly two centuries, Americans weren't focused on indulgence, but on inheritance.
07:45To be clear, I'm not talking about the kind of inheritance measured in dollars,
07:51but instead the kind measured in duty, making tomorrow better than today.
07:57But, Mr. President, you may be tempted to correct me here.
08:02Why would I only credit us with two centuries of discipline,
08:07when, after all, we turn 250 years old next year?
08:11Let me take a moment to explain.
08:14This American ethos endured for most of our history,
08:18but I believe something shifted in our culture around the time I was born.
08:23Our society began to leverage the security that earlier Americans won for tomorrow
08:29in order to avoid the challenges of the day.
08:33Courageous people don't do that.
08:37Even a few years before I was born,
08:41I believe President Kennedy had already begun to detect the shift.
08:46In his inaugural address, he implored Americans to do one thing.
08:49Ask not what your country can do for you.
08:52Ask what you can do for your country.
08:56A nation that once rallied around sacrifice, in war, in rebuilding,
09:01in laying foundations for the future, gave way to a new cultural mood.
09:06Over time, we stopped asking,
09:08what can we build and leave for the ones we love?
09:11And we began to ask, what can we claim for ourselves?
09:15We became obsessed with what we, as individuals, are entitled to,
09:19and we forgot how to plant the seeds and nurture them until the harvest.
09:25The sense of shared responsibility that had defined generations was eroding.
09:30Our growing reliance on promises we felt others owed to us
09:34meant that we earned less and expected more.
09:37We initially built a safety net to protect people in need
09:42and our most vulnerable citizens,
09:44which is a noble idea and one that I support.
09:49But, over time, that safety net stretched wider and wider
09:54until nearly everybody was lying in it.
09:57As the cost of our promises ballooned,
10:01we lacked the will to either pay for them
10:03or the courage to pare them back.
10:07So what did we do instead, Mr. President?
10:10We did what previous generations refused to do.
10:14We passed the buck
10:15by handing the bill off to our children.
10:18Instead of sacrificing for the next generation,
10:23we passed the burden on to them.
10:26It was a convenient deception.
10:29Congress created more programs that it wouldn't pay for.
10:32Public officials made promises they couldn't keep,
10:35and they convinced their constituents
10:36that Americans who come of age after us
10:39would take care of tomorrow all by themselves.
10:42We also fought wars
10:44and engaged in foreign interventions without paying for them.
10:47It all adds up.
10:50And while our national debt kept rising,
10:54I'm not just talking about in dollars,
10:56America kept experiencing a real character deficit.
11:00We weren't just spending money.
11:02We were squandering trust, legacy, and time
11:05at the expense of the boys and girls
11:06who were too young to even vote
11:08or recognize a better path
11:11than the one we had chosen for them.
11:14We soothed ourselves
11:15by claiming that we were being compassionate
11:17but we passed on
11:20the consequences of our choices
11:22to those not yet born.
11:24This is not compassion.
11:26It's generational theft.
11:28In 1967,
11:30when I was born,
11:31the national debt stood at $330 billion.
11:34Today, it's $36 trillion,
11:37more than 100 times greater
11:38even after adjusting for inflation.
11:41In 2024 alone,
11:42we ran a $1.8 trillion deficit.
11:47A baby born in America today
11:49inherits $106,000
11:51as their share of the national debt
11:54on day one.
11:56So what happened to American ingenuity,
12:01resolve, and discipline?
12:02What happened to it?
12:04How did a nation,
12:05once defined by sacrifice,
12:08for our kids to become...
12:11What happened to a nation
12:13that once was defined by sacrifice?
12:16Think about that.
12:17For our kids to become one
12:18that was willing to pilfer their piggy banks.
