A Nation That Makes And Builds Things

First The Wall Street Journal plays host to Ron Paul (yes, the Ron Paul) and Jim DeMint when they call for the auditing of the Fed, and now Dan DiMicco writes therein:

With the official unemployment rate at 10% and the real unemployment rate over 18% (accounting for people who can only find part-time employment or have given up looking for work), it's clear that job creation should be the country's top priority. That is why I firmly believe we need additional economic stimulus. But this time we need to do it the right way.

Here are three steps we can take that will move the economy forward without increasing the federal budget deficit. These steps will also dramatically reduce our trade deficit, promote genuine rules-based free trade, and position us to remain the world's leader.

•Replace foreign sources of energy with domestically produced energy. Oil imports account for about half of our trade deficit. Government policy must encourage drilling for oil and natural gas, foster the construction of dozens of new nuclear power plants, and help develop multiple forms of renewable energy like wind, solar and biomass.

Powering the economy with domestic oil and natural gas will not increase carbon emissions more than if we use imported fuels. But it will create millions and millions of jobs—great jobs in energy infrastructure and domestic manufacturing.

Tax revenues will pour in from all directions because of a massive effort to achieve energy independence. Increased domestic oil and gas production will thus reduce our budget deficit, national debt and interest payments on the debt, as well as our trade deficit.

It will take decades to transition to a low-carbon economy. But getting there does not require taxpayer dollars. It does require a cooperative effort by government and the private sector that would allow for the necessary increase in domestic exploration and production, and the building of more distribution infrastructure such as natural gas pipelines on a scale that will enable us to replace foreign energy sources, while we transition to a low-carbon economy.

• Balance our trade deficit. We need to correct the mercantilist and predatory trading practices of our principal trading competitors—yes, competitors not partners. These countries such as China won't be partners until they stop using opportunistic and illegal trade practices like currency manipulation, illegal subsidies and border-adjusted taxes (especially the value-added tax).

Ending these trade distortions will result in a resurgence of domestic manufacturing. It will also foster long-term, balanced, and healthy trade relationships.

This should be part of an overall government effort to refocus itself as a champion of U.S.-based manufacturing and the American middle class. This undertaking will be a major shift from recent decades, when the government ignored this responsibility.

• Rebuild outdated and unsafe infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers has stated earlier this year that we need to spend $2.2 trillion over the next five years to improve our country's roads and bridges. The money to do so can come from unspent funds from the stimulus bill passed earlier this year, and from some of the revenues that will come from increasing our domestic energy production.

These policy changes by our government—in conjunction with leadership and financing from the private sector—will drive the creation of the more than 20 million jobs we need to rebuild our economy, our country, and our middle class. They will get us back to being a nation that makes and builds things.

We are being called to address and succeed at resolving the current economic crisis. Make no mistake: We must change our direction as a country for the betterment of current and future generations of Americans and, as a result, the rest of the world.

Let's seize this opportunity as one country—the government and private sector working together to overcome the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.