8. April 2009 by David A. Peterson.

Last November I had one topic stuck on my mind - ENERGY.

Fast forward just a few months into the Obama Administration and he has placed sustainable energy as one of his pillars to our long term economic recovery. This pillar of creating a multitude of thriving renewable energy platforms is exciting and it could be a driver for the next 25 years of job growth in this country.

There is going to be a lot of debate over the next few months and years on the energy policy. As an example the “cap and trade” policy of taxing the carbon producers to force lower carbon emissions is a very unpopular debate happening right now. Cap and trade is really a hidden tax, it’s not called a tax but if you are reading this article then you can probably read between the lines.

The U.S. economy really can’t take another hidden tax placed squarely on the dinner plates of American families .

It’s this hidden tax that I am really concerned about. In the Summer of 2008 gas prices hit $4/gallon. That increase in gasoline prices amounted to an immediate $2/gallon. That $2 acted exactly like a tax. In fact many states even waived their own taxes on gasoline becuase prices got out of hand.

If you think that it was just a coincidence that the recession started in the summer of 2008 when the hidden “gas tax” was $2/gallon - think again!

As Republicans we need to get behind the President in creating a sustainable energy policy. We need to help him shape the energy policy. We need to be standing by his side, shaking his hand, and thanking him for being progressive and diligent in putting forth something this important.

Here is why we need to help the President right now…

Without Republican help the policy will be skewed to creating long term renewable energies. This is terrific and it will create millions of new high paying jobs over the long term. However, in the short term, say within the next 10 to 15 years we still need to “drill baby, drill.”

Republican need to shape the energy policy be defining near term vs. long term goals. The President is on the right track long term but no one is speaking about our short term needs.

As Americans we can’t hold China and India back. These underdeveloped countries are going to grow and grow fast. These countries will need a tremendous amount of oil to pull 100’s of millions of their own countrymen out of poverty. This growth, that is going to happen, will put a new strain on the world’s oil supply.

Regardless if America and Europe’s economies ever recover China and India will create the world’s next energy crisis.

Republicans need to get in front of the near term energy discussion. We need to get our own committees together and bring very thought out public suggestions to the President. We need to bring bipartisanship to this discussion.

The President will listen. He may not listen today, but today gasoline is at $2/gallon. Let it go to $3, $4, and then to $5/gallon and see how quickly he changes his tune. Unfortunately Republicans are not ready to offer suggestions if the problem hit as early as this summer. Republicans would be ready for sound bites but not well thought out solutions.

Republicans have forgotten about the energy crisis that just HAPPENED! If you don’t believe me can anyone please tell me who in the Republican party is leading the near term energy discussion right now? I’m not talking about sign bites that occur when it’s topical, I’m talking about who in our party is leading the energy discussion, day in - day out?

If there was ever a time for Sara Palin and Bobby Jindal to step up now is the time. Also just as Jimmy Carter worked on foreign policy over the last 30 years it wouldn’t hurt if George Bush #43 weighed in on this very current issue and made it his own.

We need to “drill baby, drill” right now. Near term energy policy has to be part of Obama’s long term strategy. Let’s give him the bipartisan support he needs. Let’s shape the short term policy by STARTING NOW before we completely forget about the summer of 2008. Let’s stop the hidden taxes before they occur!

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6. April 2009 by David A. Peterson.

I am so tired of hearing that the tax cuts like those of the last eight years have caused our current economic meltdown. I have heard this over and over again for months. It is clearly a talking point for the Democratic Party.

Does anyone really believe that? Does anyone really believe that tax cuts caused the current recession?

Where is the Republican reply? Why don’t Republicans counter this revisionist message?

It just kills me that Republicans let the Democrats control the message. Democrat are saying that they have to tax and spend more because the tax cuts of our recent past got us into our current situation.

What are the Republicans saying? Republicans are pitching the fact that their plan of tax cuts will create more jobs. This is true but it is not the argument.

I have written before that the Republicans missed the “jobs” message during the 2008 election cycle, however, when the subject isn’t jobs then my advice would be to make an appropriate response to the subject.

To win an argument you have to attack the problem, not deflect the problem to another subject. That tactic makes you look like you don’t understand the real issue at hand. The real issue to approximately 1/2 the country is that (you guessed it) “tax cuts have caused our current economic meltdown!” If that is the real issue to 1/2 of the country then don’t you think you ought to have a response to that issue?

“Jobs” is not the answer to a response of what “caused” our problem in the first place?

Come on folks get your head out of the sand.

The problem with the phrase “…tax cuts have caused our current economic meltdown…,” is that it is not true. Tax cuts didn’t cause the problem! The problem was caused by crooked bankers, shortsighted CEOs, blind rating agencies, and severely unqualified borrowers who were all in cahoots together.

What caused our current problem is that bankers lent money to people who couldn’t repay the loans. Then those same bankers packaged those loans into financial instruments that the rating agencies loved which allowed the instruments to be sold to CEO’s who were looking to make a quick buck.

By now we all know what happened. There should be no need to discuss the past. However, when the Democrats are allowed to re-write our current history by substituting “tax cuts” for “crooked bankers” then the Republicans should be shouting that message down.

The only people I hear making any type of argument against this revisionist history is - well I don’t actually hear anyone making the argument but me!

Republicans lost control of the Executive and Legislative branches of government for a variety of reasons, I will let the historian’s debate which reasons caused the most damage and led to the Republican demise. The first step to recovery is ensuring that they have the right coherent response to the current subject.

I have mentioned it before; the Republican leadership needs to take control of the message. We need every Republican that has face-time or pen-time in front of the local and national media to squash the revisionist statement of “…tax cuts have caused our current economic meltdown…”

If we don’t take care of the revisionist statement soon it will become a true fact. It will become a fact that tax cuts and not crooked bankers have caused our current economic problems.

If we lose this message then we get to spend the 2010 election cycle trying to re-write the already re-written current events. I would like to spend 2010 campaigning on the issues rather than redefining the issues.

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