The Greening of Obama

Where to begin? Obama says he wants to "reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. A dependence that endangers our economy and our security." (1:30 on the video) Can anyone tell me why, if dependence on foreign oil "endangers our economy and our security" (which it does) that liberals and Democrats (but, I repeat myself) have opposed and still oppose exploration for domestic sources of oil for how many years? .

And while Obama says (at 1:25) that his initiative will create manufacturing jobs that "pay well", I wonder if they pay as well as oil drillers make? Or the folks that make the oil rigs and platforms and heavy equipment used in oil exploration and production?

At around 3:16 in the video, Obama puts a price tag on all the green jobs he's going to create, excuse me likely to create: 2.3 Billion dollars in tax credits to create...(drumroll please!)...17 thousand jobs!

So, millions of people are out of work, and Obama is willing to cut $2.3 billion out of the federal budget, without $2.3 billion dollars in corresponding spending cuts (This is where the liberals and Democrats will shout out with perfect consistency: How are you going to pay for those tax cuts, Mr. President?) Anyone care to do the math of how much each of those 17,000 jobs cost?

Although I am not opposed to tax cuts for the right reasons, since I suspect that this administration will not stop their drunken sailor mode of spending, these tax cuts will prolong the nation's indebtedness, whereas simply opening up areas in the US for oil exploration and production will not require tax subsidies or credits, would generate tax revenues on the oil produced, would produce good paying jobs, would reduce the dollars going to countries potentially hostile to the US, could lower energy costs, which would benefit individuals and businesses alike, and could conceivably help to stabilize the dollar as a world currency in the bargain.

This is not to say we couldn't do both. And while new technologies may be the future, we should drill here, drill now... in the present.

Cross posted at Say Anything