[Alberta's Child]

That's exactly why I've been saying for years that "Drill here, drill now!" is not going to make things any better for this country unless we get our financial house in order. The combination of increased domestic energy production and a weakening U.S. dollar results in dramatic growth of energy exports, not necessarily a greater supply of energy for domestic consumption.

[DustyMoment]

. . . "Drill here, drill now!" is not going to make things any better for this country unless we get our financial house in order.

There are many components to this. Being able to develop and produce our own gas and oil is critically important to our future and plays into the financial issue but, you are correct, we desparately need to get our financial house in order.

One component of that is manufacturing. Here's a stat that should give you pause for concern - at the end of WWII, we had 60% of the world's manufacturing capacity. Today, we have less than 20% and an unemployment rate in excess of 9% (which probably means that the REAL number is closer to 20%!). THAT'S what our corrupt government (not just Bammy, but corrupt politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle) have given us. If we don't reverse the flow of manufacturing jobs offshore AND stop exporting domestically produced gas and oil (to lower the price at the pump), we are, indeed, hosed!