Put America's Interest above Parties

Put America's Interest above Parties
(Published in the Hickory Daily Record on 7/14/2008)

On July 7, 2008, Lee Brinson wrote about how many of us – apparently only conservatives – have not done our homework on the oil issue. I’m a disenchanted Republican that disdains much of the leadership in my party.

In 1994, the GOP was placed in charge of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years, because they proposed a real agenda. Republicans wasted the opportunity to truly reform our bloated government. Instead of implementing “The Contract with America” one step at a time, they overreached and achieved very little other than welfare reform.

Over the next 12 years they compromised to the point of abandoning their core principles. While the current Republican Party is unrecognizable, the Democrats have kowtowed to the extreme elements of their party to the point where our country is economically stagnated by a sea of taxation, regulation, and litigation.

We can’t grow our economy without energy. I’d love to do it with Solar Panels, Windmills, Hydroelectric, and Nuclear energy, but go do some homework and see who has stood in the way of those resources. There have to be tax incentives and fast tracks to foster research and development. Tax incentives are also needed to make alternatives affordable to the average consumer. Will the shortsighted tax revenue lust of our bloated bureaucracy allow for this to happen?

In the meantime, Fossil Fuels are the lifeblood of our economy and the high prices of fuel are ruining it. The quickest route to getting the economy back on track would be to get fuel prices down to a reasonable level. If the world market sees that we are taking comprehensive steps toward an energy solution, then the current Oil Bubble will burst and we will see oil below $100 a barrel in a matter of days.

Mr. Brinson, it will take nowhere near 10 years to get oil out of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. I’d also like for you to understand that the oil companies are not drilling on the current set asides, because the geologicals say there is no oil there. Should they drill where scientific research says there is no oil? Your homework seems to be the regular Cliffs Notes talking point memoranda spouted out every day on television.

I would like to ask you, would you rather be sending millions of dollars to dictators or keep that money here and support the high paying, high tech jobs that would go along with it?

Energy is integral to making the economy grow. If you truly want a bright future for generations to come, we must dispose of the rhetoric. I agree that we need to be more efficient in our energy usage, but we cannot conserve our way to the energy independence that would be best for our nation’s security.

The last thought I would like to leave you with is that this country is not about being a Republican or Democrat, it is first and foremost about being an American. The two-party system is full of a bunch of greedy politicians getting rich and powerful at our expense. May I ask you, what have they done lately that make them so worthy of defending?