Senior Andrew Clark, a Hatchet columnist, encourages college students to adopt a favorable attitude towards austerity because it will help the economic situation.

Seeing the Republican Party seriously considering a ban on earmarks in Congress has given me hope that America may finally be ready to attack our fiscal crisis.

Don’t get me wrong, I realize that killing earmarks is no panacea to our deficit woes – they account for less than 1 percent of the federal budget. But the move is a symbolic indication that America may finally be ready to make the painful sacrifices that will be required in a course correction back to economic strength.

Our generation should be leading the way toward this new era of austerity.