We might start by returning to energy independence. The climate would not be hurt one bit: The US has plenty of oil under the ground; we can extract it more cleanly than anyone. Instead, we are paying exorbitant prices to, say, Russia for oil that is far dirtier, while the Chinese Communist Party are opening two new coal plants a week. The result, in terms of clean air, is therefore currently either net-zero or, thanks to "protecting" the planet from America's clean oil, actually down.
Additionally, the US outlay for buying overpriced foreign oil and gas for immediate domestic use has simply served to finance both Russia's war on Ukraine, and Iran and Hamas's war on Israel. If the US were to start drilling, refining and exporting oil again, its price would go back down to $40 or $50 a barrel, nearly half its current $83 – and Russia and Iran, soon unable to afford their global aggression, would be forced to stop.
Next, the US should return to a policy of strong economic growth. No country has ever taxed itself into prosperity. Let America's animal spirits -- in a creative, economically open market -- loose again. Lower everyone's taxes and tear up all regulations that are now throttling growth. Most regulations are probably only there because some adversarial country that is trying to cut the US down to size -- think Russia and China -- wants them to be.
America's "competitors" are not competitors. They are openly adversaries (here, here, here, and here) and would seem to love nothing more than putting the US out of business. They are already doing their best to cripple and displace the US technologically, militarily and economically. The Chinese Communist Party, after causing more than a million Americans to die by deliberately lying to the world about the human-to-human transmissibility of Covid-19, are literally poisoning Americans by smuggling in fentanyl and other lethal drugs. According to Dr. John C. Hagan, writing in Missouri Medicine:
"Enough fentanyl to kill every person in the United States is smuggled in monthly. Prosecutors and courts consistently fail to prosecute drug dealers whose products kill more than 100,000 people per year."
Hostile governments such as Russia and China have a pattern of donating dark money to special interest groups -- as well as donations to members of Congress -- that provide grants, advertising and legislation that, not surprisingly, benefit Russia and China. These self-immolating policies include killing US energy development and rare-earth mineral mining to help the climate --- and to have US buy oil from Russia, and solar panels, electric-vehicle batteries and daily necessities such as medicine from China. Add in wind turbines, which are totally ineffectual for a 21st century economy, and you pretty much get the picture. Last week, the Wall Street Journal revealed "The Biden EPA's Plan to Ration Electricity."
The US will not benefit by being forced back to the Middle Ages. If climate change is harmful and needs adjusting, as in many ways it may be, a better investment would be for it to turn, as it always has, to its stunning research and development (R&D) – which America's enemies have always been too happy to steal.
After that, the US really needs to bring manufacturing back home, or at least move it to countries such as India, which are not dedicated to overthrowing and ruling the US. There have always been investors who apparently have thought, "Gee, if I don't sell Zyklon-B to the Nazis to gas the Jew with, somebody else will!" but it would be far more protective of the US and the Free World -- and less expensive nationally -- to invest together in "Made in America." Such a policy will keep more jobs at home; keep basic necessities, such as medicines or computer chips readily available; and will greatly reduce the need to spend huge resources fighting wars. A strong, modernized military, however, is a must, if only to keep would-be predators from thinking predatory thoughts.
With a strong pro-growth agenda, it is equally important also to provide low-cost loans for business expansion, and of course a prioritized safety net for our veterans and others who justly require help. There is also an urgent need for closing the borders, which pose an immense national security threat. At present, there are reportedly more than 20 million illegal immigrants in the US, half of whom entered since 2021. The US census has been counting these, not just citizens, to allocate the number of seats in the House of Representatives and the number of Electoral College delegates. Among these are an estimated 1.5 million "gotaways," about whom we know nothing; nearly 40,000 Chinese, about half of whom are men of military age and arrived in groups, who could be potential saboteurs sent by the Chinese Communist Party and are awaiting orders -- China does not send its citizens illegally across the border to the US on vacation to see the Grand Canyon. There are apparently also 85,000 children who have gone "missing." Americans who were frantic about "kids in cages" appear totally unperturbed that 85,000 children might be enslaved, tortured, sex-trafficked, used for pornography or brutal night work.
We need serious education for all our children, so that they will be able to enter the future of America and its marketplace with knowledge, strength and skills. We also need, for all our elections, mandatory cleaned-up voter rolls; paper ballots instead of machines, which are historically vulnerable to manipulation; verifiable identification, and same-day voting -- so that no one can check how many votes are still needed to overturn the latest entry.
If we can do all that, our country might even be off to a pretty good start.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
