Our broken nation can be fixed

So now we know that America sits on top of vast reserves of recoverable oil and natural gas that, when brought to market, will make us energy independent and can reignite our faltering economy. Thus, the question is: How do we make that happen?

There are two obvious answers. The first is to leave it to the private sector. The second is to leave it to the federal government. These distinctly different answers have one thing in common: They are certain to fail. If we leave it to the energy companies, they'll get richer and little else will happen. If we leave it to the feds, it will become an endless nightmare of committee meetings and regulations.

No, to harness the energy that can light the way out of the nation's growing darkness, we need a new paradigm — a new chapter in American democracy. Let's call it the American Economic Renaissance (AER). AER would be chartered by Congress as a nongovernmental entity, like the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was in 1863. But with vastly more authority than the NAS, the AER would exclusively control all of the $37.5 trillion in royalty payments from the oil and gas under federal land such as the Green River Formation! Let that thought sink in!

How would the AER put that money to work? For example, it's clear that America's complex infrastructure is falling apart. The most recent report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation's infrastructure an overall grade of D. More specifically, they grade aviation a D, dams a D, rail a C-minus, schools a D, national power grid a D-minus, and navigable waterways a D-minus. The society estimates that the five-year cost to put all of this right is $2.2 trillion.

In the current stagnant economy, that $2.2 trillion price tag is totally out of reach. But with the AER in control of the $37.5 trillion in royalty payments, it's "chump change." Do you see the difference? And a national infrastructure rebuild and all the good jobs it would create is but one of scores of examples of the job-creating and economy-lifting projects that AER would make possible for decades to come with its access to the energy royalties.

And a mechanism exists that the AER could use to assure the money was well and properly spent. One of the few gleaming success stories in the federal government is the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH's job is to support biomedical research to cure disease. It began in 1938 with an annual appropriation of about $464,000. Today its budget is more than $31 billion. The NIH has for decades been the world's unquestioned leader in advancing biomedical knowledge and curing disease.

It spends its money wisely and well, and the bureaucrats at the NIH have virtually nothing to do with funding decisions. Instead the NIH convenes what it calls study sections that are made of the best scientists (private citizens) from our universities and medical centers. These scientists rank every proposed research grant for its scientific merit. Then the NIH pays the grant requests basically in ranked order of scientific merit until it runs out of money. All the bureaucrats do is write the checks.

The AER could employ a variant of this trustworthy system to award funding for a national infrastructure rebuild, and everything else that it would ultimately support. Can you imagine the number and diversity of jobs such an effort would create? It would be enormous and would go far beyond construction jobs to include a vast array of real and sustainable jobs.

The AER would, of course, have to be led by a remarkable individual. There are many in America who can provide the leadership that's required. One example is Gen. Colin Powell, a proven leader and commander, a patriot who would put the nation's interest above all else, a person who would command the respect and the fear of the power centers in government, Wall Street, the business roundtable and organized labor.

Will the formation of the AER be opposed? Indeed it will, and by a formidable and unholy alliance made up of environmental extremists, the coal industry and the federal government, regardless of which political party runs it. Such an alliance will be formidable. But it can be defeated by an aroused American citizenry that comes to understand that the AER will rebuild a shattered economy, create real jobs and assure our national security.

Some of you will say all this can't be done. Is that what you would have said to Gen. George Washington and his army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78? Is that what you would have said to Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves at the outset of the Manhattan Project in 1942? Is that what you would have said to a visionary president who in 1961 called for this nation to send a man to the moon and return him safely to Earth? When you lose sight of your past, you lose the ability to chart your future.

The nation's economic disintegration that began in 2007 shines a bright light on our national decline. In a study for the Pew Charitable Trusts, Phillip Swagel estimated that the nation lost $17 trillion between 2007-09. That's your money that Wall Street and the government flushed down the toilet. It could have paid off the entire national debt. If that isn't enough to motivate you, nothing will.

Oh, and one last thought. If you harbor the notion that either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will handle this problem, you're whistlin' Dixie. If you poke Obama and Romney with a stick and say, "energy independence," they say respectively, "green jobs" and "I'm for it." Wow!

If you want to reverse America's decline, if you want a bright future for your children and your grandchildren, if you want economic prosperity and national security, then take back your country. Create the AER.

Please Visit:  Citizens Against Politics As Usual

Please Visit:  Mike Tower Political Opinions