Let's make the most of bin Laden's death

It’s hard not to celebrate the news of Osama bin Laden’s death.

I dressed my son in a American flag T-shirt this morning before sending him off to daycare.

Other parts of the world will call us evil and paint us as the villains, but for today the CIA, the Navy Seals and other Special Forces personnel are heroes. I’m not embarrassed to say it.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were a unifying force in this country, and hopefully bin Laden’s death will bring some of that spirit back or serve as a reminder that we can accomplish great things when we pull together.

My hope is that this accomplishment will spill over onto Capitol Hill and the White House. Perhaps for a few weeks anyway, we’ll see a decrease in the partisan bickering and political rhetoric.

Hopefully, bin Laden’s death will remind of us of the very real threats we face as a nation.

And frankly, I would put the budget and deficit high on that list of threats. Our nation is endangered by our inability to control and better manage our spending and the political rancor that surrounds how decisions are made.

It’s embarrassing that Congress and the White House took us through more than six months of continuing resolutions and had the government on the verge of a shutdown before they passed a budget.

Now, raising the debt ceiling looms as the next big test.

What I find unfortunate are that too many people on either side of the aisle use the budget process to score political points rather than as a tool for governing.

Perhaps I’m a little naïve but I hope that the euphoria surrounding the death of bin Laden gives way to a spirit of cooperation.

We face serious problems in this country and the only way to solve them is through a coming together of the political parties and a focus on finding solutions, not just scoring points or beating our political opponents.

The death of bin Laden is highly symbolic, but it doesn’t make us safer. Only hard work and a bipartisan focus on our problems can.