Is the President sending American jobs overseas?

Certainly the events of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which resulted in the loss of life and oil spilling into the Gulf waters, was a tragic accident. (By the way, as a side note, why did we see and hear more news on the birds and turtles suffering from the oil slick than we did on the families that lost loved ones and livelihoods?) Of course, this accident most likely would not have happened had the many layers of government regulators been doing their jobs. Additionally tragic, is the loss of jobs and economic activity due to the outrageous ban on oil production in the Gulf. (There is nothing quite like making private industry pay for the Government's ineptness) Why hasn't mainstream media broadcast in bold the 36 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that have been put out of work, or the five rigs that have left for Egypt and other parts of Africa, and the roughly 8,000 to 12,000 jobs lost?

What have we heard? Well the White House got the headlines they wanted yesterday. The Washington Post: U.S Lifts Ban on Deep-Water Drilling. The Los Angeles Times: U.S. Lifts Moratorium on Deep-Water Drilling in Gulf of Mexico. The New York Times: White House Lifts Ban on Deepwater Drilling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters on a conference call yesterday: "We are open for business."

So what's the big deal - oil production resumes, right? Wrong. Notice the quote from Ken Salazar, "We are open for business." What does that mean? Again, I have said it before; in politics, never focus on the hand the politicians want you to see, because that hand is a distraction from the other hand which holds the bag of dirty details. In other words, "open for business as long as we (Federal Government) issue you a permit to explore, start, or resume oil production." Essentially nothing is open for business until the permits are issued.

Now there are two problems with this "open for business deception." One, the Federal Government doesn't have to issue permits even though they are "open for business." I think we all can grasp what that concept means. So here is problem number two, oil companies may not want a permit. You say WHAT? Let's annoy a bunch of liberals, environmentalists, and progressives for a minute, and THINK this through.

First, the President can "turn on" and  "shut off" oil production as he sees fit. If you don't believe that, then you haven't been watching your TV.  Second, his policies on new oil drilling have done nothing but to inflict uncertainty into the rulebook that these oil companies must play by - yeah, that's right, these oil companies that hire people and provide jobs and livelihoods - yeah, that's right, which impacts our economy.

So what does this mean? Let's imagine you're the CEO of an oil company. Would you develop a long term business model that invests hundreds of millions of dollars to drill in a market that can be essentially shutdown by one Administration - especially knowing full well that this Administration has no problem demonizing you in an emergency when it's own regulators were caught "sleeping" on the job? Could you in good conscience work with a market where the policy that regulates your playing field is full of uncertainty because the Administration is 1), in over it's head, and 2), trying to please the progressive environmental and green energy groups? Anybody hear of Van Jones? If you as the CEO have any business sense at all, you would say"no."

That is what is happening. Even some Democrats are able to see this. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said this yesterday.

Today's decision is a good start, but it must be accompanied by an action plan to get the entire industry in the Gulf of Mexico back to work. This means that the administration must continue to accelerate the granting of permits in shallow and deep water, and provide greater certainty about the rules and regulations industry must meet.

Ultimately, regardless of the glowing headlines, the reality is that the de facto drilling ban is still in place. You know, I have to ask myself, what is so wrong about just being an honest politician? Anyway, what's the result of all of this. Smart companies will move on (because time is money) while our idiot politicians play politics. Who suffers? We the American people suffer - duh. It's estimated that if this de facto drilling ban remains, over the long term, our President will "de-create" 175,000 jobs. It's probably not like we need those jobs now, or in the future - huh? Where will these jobs go? Overseas. Think about that the next time the Administration lambasts some company for sending jobs overseas.