America's economic policy choices are often misrepresented as being between “socialist” protection of people and families and “free market” subsidies and tax breaks to favored industries. Opponents of these favors are attacked as enemies of “free” trade and “free” enterprise.

But it's a strange brand of freedom conservatives offer. People aren't free to change their jobs or to organize for better wages and working conditions. Families aren't free to plan and build a better future. Communities aren't free to protect themselves from becoming empty, impoverished shells. Meanwhile, America slides slowly, disastrously, into its new status as a second-rate economic power, its currency discarded, it products unwanted, its people tainted with decline and doubt.

America's future has been mortgaged to our addiction to fossil fuels. Global warming, instability in the Middle East, and high gas prices are just a few of the warning signs of the price we are paying for our inertia about our energy lifestyles.

Most American families are hard-pressed by the rapid increases in the price of gasoline. Some are calling for drilling on federal property in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. I am opposed to these proposals. Oil companies are currently utilizing only one quarter of area leased for drilling. Estimates are that 79% of the available oil in the Gulf of Mexico is within the area currently available for drilling. It will be decades before large amounts of oil flow from new fields, so they will not reduce the burden on consumers in the short and medium terms. These fields are further offshore or in harsh climates, making them far more expensive to develop than existing fields. More than 25 years have passed since a major refinery was built in the United States, and an increase in the flow of crude will not affect the price of gasoline if that bottleneck continues. The fields proposed are in sensitive and irreplaceable natural environments, and don't hold enough oil to justify the risks to these priceless habitats. Oil companies drilling on government land should be required to pay royalties at world market rates for oil recovered there. These royalties should be used to fund research, development, and implementation of clean renewable alternative fuel technology to supplement or replace fossil fuels.

The policies enacted by government under the influence of special interests have been more damaging to this country than any terrorists. Our economy has been damaged, our military is fighting the wrong war, our children are left ignorant, our borders are wide-open. These are problems faced by every nation, but the unique role of corporate money in American politics prevents the best policies from being adopted and leaves our citizens worse off than those of other major countries in almost every measure of well-being. Any national security policy that ignores this problem is meaningless.

We need to develop a view of security that includes issues such as education, public health, and opportunity for all Americans. These opportunities are essential to the success of America's economy in the 21st Century, which will require all Americans to be "knowledge workers" equipped with the skills needed to compete with well-educated, highly-motivated students from Europe and Asia.