Essentially, when we run a deficit, we are borrowing money to buy things that are made overseas.

But they are not going to take on Big Oil because Big Oil is very generous at campaign time, and this is all about the elections. They want to pretend that they are doing something meaningful.

Of the 55 refineries closed in America in the last 10 years, they were all closed for economic reasons, mostly oil company mergers. Not a single one was closed for environmental purposes or objections.

There is a lot of lip service paid in this Congress and downtown at the White House about family values and small business. Who better represents family values and small business than the fishermen and women on the Oregon and California coast.

The U.S. must renounce any U.S. interest in constructing permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.

Nor should the U.S. military be forced to remain in Iraq essentially as an army for one side of a civil war.

The training and equipping of Iraqi security forces should be accelerated.