Over the past few months, I’ve had the same conversation with different people — my Uber driver, the UPS delivery person, my landscaper, a nurse at my doctor’s office, a waitress at my neighborhood restaurant. They all share the same worries: affording groceries, gas prices, child-care costs. These aren’t abstract economic concerns debated in Washington; they’re the daily anxieties keeping working Americans up at night.

What they may not realize is how deeply connected their struggles are to a fiscal crisis unfolding in our nation’s capital. The federal government ran an $1.9 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2024. Our total national debt stood at $36.2 trillion — a staggering sum that continues to grow.

I’m not an economist. I’m a baby boomer who grew up hearing my father repeat one simple truth: debt is bad. He lived through harder times and understood that spending more than you earn eventually catches up with you. That wisdom applied to our household budget, and it applies to our national budget too. Yet somehow, Washington has convinced itself that the old rules don’t matter anymore.

The numbers tell a sobering story. Interest payments on our debt reached $878 billion in 2024, surpassing both national defense and Medicare spending. We’re now paying more just to service old debt than we spend protecting the country or caring for seniors. Every dollar going to interest is a dollar unavailable for everything else.

Florida’s ballot initiative process has long been a beacon of direct democracy, a way for everyday Floridians to make their voices heard when politicians fail to represent their values. This process has enabled the public to pass landmark amendments on issues ranging from minimum wage increases to voting rights. 

Amendment 4 – a new constitutional amendment aimed at securing abortion access- underwent a rigorous governmental approval process. But now, the State’s recently created election police force is investigating that same petition process as a tool to attack democracy. The Florida Secretary of State is also pushing highly dubious “fraud” claims while providing no evidence that anything was done wrong. 

The amendment process, which allows citizens to propose changes to the state constitution, is not only legal but a critical part of our democracy. The sheer number of signatures required for an amendment to make it onto the ballot, combined with the hurdles of fundraising and organizing, ensure that only proposals with broad public support even have a chance of success. 

The petition drive for Amendment 4 reflects just such a groundswell of public support. But rather than respecting the will of the people, state officials are using law enforcement to try to quash this effort.

We can only hope that at some point in the future, sanity will return. Earlier this month, the State of Florida withdrew from a nationwide system used to help maintain voter rolls and detect voter fraud.  This decision alarmed many of us in Florida who continue to fight for free and fair elections.