Picture if you will, a world at the brink of serious unrest: Nuclear proliferation threatens to spread to rogue regimes. Oil is squeezed with ever-increasing control by OPEC, and dictatorships become rich with black gold, but not much else. The unemployment rate and the cost of food, gas, and home heating are on the rise, while the value of our homes and other assets fall. This world is here, yet while the wind buffets our sails in troubled waters, we need steady hands with vision, not partisan divides.

In 1998, the price of a barrel of oil reached a low of $10 and our economy was booming. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Treasury received a surplus in tax receipts and we were paying down the federal deficit. This past summer, the price of a barrel of oil topped at $147, and our economy ground to a halt. The reality is that our nation runs on 61 percent oil and natural gas. Imagine also a cap-and-trade system forcing all Americans to drive a vehicle getting 35 miles per gallon. Now look out in your driveway and see if your vehicle meets that standard. If it doesn’t, congratulations, you’re now in the market for a new car!

Who will such a standard hurt the most? Working families who are already struggling to pay the bills. It is true that the simplest solution is usually the best. This begs the question: would it be simpler to replace every American’s car for one with better gas mileage, at the expense of the citizen, or would it be simpler to drill for more oil where we know it exists, thus decreasing the price of oil as supply increases? We already have the ability to drill safely in areas of our country that are now off-limits, but we’re not doing so because of bad legislation and policy that has come from Washington, particularly from the Congress over the past two years.

We need a comprehensive energy plan for a strong economy that includes both short and long term goals. For the short term, a pragmatic approach based on our real needs is to expand oil and natural gas production in our country. For the long term, we need to develop all energy sources — nuclear, renewables, and fossil fuels.

In a time of economic hardship, we should not increase taxes. The last president to do this was Herbert Hoover and it led to the Great Depression. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, is calling for increased taxes. Instead, we must create new jobs, not new taxes. Jobs are created when people have capital to invest and a tax code that supports their endeavors, not a tax code seeking to solely “spread the wealth around.” Remember, the American Dream is not “what my country can do for me.” The American Dream is prosperity through the creation of wealth, ownership, and the freedom to pursue one’s goals with as much ease as possible. Farmers, small businessmen or ones who aspire to own their own business, like Joe the Plumber, are the engines of our economy.

If we are to find the best solutions to our current challenges, we must be able to put everyone’s ideas on the table and determine what the best solutions are, or what combinations will bring about the best possible outcome.

For instance, Social Security is in trouble and will go bankrupt at some point in the future if current trends continue. Is it a real solution to keep increasing the payroll tax year after year to stave off the impending demise of this worthy program for just a little longer? We should be devising remedies and determining which should work best, not belittling those who are forthright enough to bring options to the table.

We face hard times, but with a combined effort we can come through stronger than ever. In the years ahead we will need leadership with a sense of inclusion, with ideas and vision, not a sense of payback — the latter will merely place us in the back seat as other, less free nations drive the car.