Drill Baby Drill!!!

We have millions out of work, gas prices are going up - around $4.00 a gallon in some places, inflation and higher energy costs are raising prices across the board, and the answers to our problems are right in front of us. Is it ignorance? Or have we actually elected people who are purposely against American prosperity? I truly hope that is not the case. Most Americans, including myself, want to think the best of our elected leaders, but in times like these, you wonder.

Just in the two years of the current administration, we have seen them lending money to Brazil for deep water exploration. A foreign, state-run oil company can drill and even receive US government handouts, but our own privately owned oil companies are prevented by this administration from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in defiance of a court order.

But forget the politics for a moment a consider the economic impact. A study was just completed by the University of Alaska Anchorage together with Northern Economics on the economic impact of drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf of just two areas of Alaska.

Now remember, this is just two relatively small areas of North America, but the economic impact is staggering.

• Over 50 years, drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi OCSs would generate $97 and $96 Billion respectively in revenue to federal, state and local governments.
• An annual average of 54,700 jobs nationwide, with a payroll of $145 Billion over 50 years.
• There is an estimated 30 Billion barrels of oil and gas reserves in the Chukchi Sea alone.

The US imports a significant portion of its oil every year, sometimes from nations that aren't so friendly and use oil revenue to fund the very terrorists we fight. There is no reason to believe that if other areas of North America were opened to exploration and drilling, America would soon become an exporter of oil, not an importer. The jobs created, increased tax revenue, lease payments and royalties, along with lower energy costs, would be a massive stimulus to the economy. And these would be real jobs, not show up and do nothing government union jobs that drain the economy of productivity and capital.

It really makes you wonder exactly whose side the current administration is on.

Financial Bigotry...

An outstanding article from American Thinker

The point of the tax debate must be the principle that every man -- rich, middle-class, or lower-class -- has the right to keep as much as possible of what he has honestly earned. It is this foundation of freedom and property rights that is being ignored in the increasingly complicated political debate over an elusive definition of how to promote "growth" for the country.


I have never understood why anyone should be forced to pay a higher percentage in taxes. And I find it ridiculous that nearly half of the country pays absolutely nothing when it comes tax time.

The tax code needs to be simplified to one very low rate with little or even no deductions. Even the very poor should contribute something - even if it is symbolic. Then, we might have some fairness and a vibrant and growing economy once more. When it comes election time, liberal voters might think twice before voting for people hell-bent on raising taxes to pay for their spending orgies.

Hope and Spare Change!

I was going to blog about Fort Hood, but decided I better avoid the subject until I calm down a bit. Instead, I give you selected headlines from today's news. Click on the links for the full story.

$230,769.23 Spent Per Stimulus Job "Created or Saved"
Reports to be released Friday on the government Web site Recovery.gov are expected to show that the $150 billion in grants and loans made so far under the economic stimulus package have created or saved about 650,000 jobs, White House officials said Friday morning.

Harrison - I still can't figure out how to measure a "saved" job. I wonder how many jobs could be created by your average entrepreneur/business owner with $230,000?

Only a Democrat could waste $230,000 in taxpayer money to create ONE freakin' job and think that is a good thing.


Unemployment Hits Record High - 10.2% In October!
Remember that Obama claimed the stimulus bill would save or create millions of jobs. It didn’t. Remember that the Obama Administration said that the stimulus bill would keep unemployment from rising above 8% and that the bill was too important to take the time to read it? Remember that after a slight dip in unemployment in August Obama claimed that he had “rescued our economy from catastrophe?”

Harrison - The CBO argued it would have been better to do nothing.

10.2% is hardly accurate. The actual number is closer to 17.5%. This is the U-6 category which includes: people who have given up, taken part time jobs, gone back to school etc. Under a Democrat controlled Congress and President Bush, that number was 11.1% last October. It is now 17.5% after a year at the mercy of a Federal government completely dominated by Democrats. Here is the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Read it quickly before the White House wipes away the evidence.

Democrats have spent taxpayer money we don't have like drunken sailors (no offense intended to my Navy friends). They have nationalized school loans and taken over car companies. They are now openly debating a takeover of health care. All these actions will just delay the natural recovery. If we ever want to get out of this economic funk, we must stop spending, shrink the government and lower taxes. Get DC out of the way of private business and watch the economy roar back to life.

And Then Obama Said, "Let There Be Jobs."

President-elect Obama - BTW, until he has a day in court and proves that he is Constitutionally qualified, I have a hard time accepting him as President. He needs to immediately produce the paperwork and prove that he is in fact a "natural born citizen" and fully qualified to be President. These doubts cannot linger past the inauguration. If he will take these very basic steps, like every other employee and prove citizenship, he will have my respect (for the office of POTUS) and my prayers for wisdom and success as Bibically commanded.

The POTUS-elect has announced a plan to "create" new jobs, over 2.5 million. He claims he will do this by putting them to work building bridges, to where, who knows and fixing schools - yep that is a good strategy for success. He also added that his administration would "invest" in alternative energy.

Why are Americans so gullible to buy this bilge? Government NEVER creates jobs. They simply take from one group and redistribute it to another. Just like Clinton's 100,000 new cops, give or take a few tens of thousands, these are short term jobs that disappear when Federal funds go away. And they will. The state and local governments will not have the means to fund these jobs, nor should they beyond their budget capability.

The economy grows when government lowers taxes and allows more money to stay in the hands of those who will spend it and invest it in job creation. Any formula involving government "investing" or "creating jobs" will utimately collapse when the higher taxes required to support this welfare cannot be collected.