Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack, two Liberals at the Brookings Institution, opined in yesterday’s NY Times writing “A War We Just Might Win.” Ya Think? Eight days in Iraq has suddenly made these two analysts experts on the war and terrorism.

We didn’t need this information but it’s amazing to see it in the NY RagTimes Op-Ed.

The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Now they arrogantly tell us “what we need to understand”:

We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

Gains they saw? Were they embedded with the infantry or marines? We think not. But they opine that “victory” may not necessarily be sustainable. So you win then you lose?

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

Harry Reid, call your office!

Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.

Better late than never but Michael Yon and Bill Roggio at The Fourth Rail have been reporting this for weeks.

The additional American military formations brought in as part of the surge, General Petraeus’s determination to hold areas until they are truly secure before redeploying units, and the increasing competence of the Iraqis has had another critical effect: no more whack-a-mole, with insurgents popping back up after the Americans leave.

John Murtha, call your office!

Another surprise was how well the coalition’s new Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams are working. Wherever we found a fully staffed team, we also found local Iraqi leaders and businessmen cooperating with it to revive the local economy and build new political structures. Although much more needs to be done to create jobs, a new emphasis on microloans and small-scale projects was having some success where the previous aid programs often built white elephants.

Oh Really? Imagine That! But Wait! Now for the “Doom and Gloom” you knew it was coming.

In the end, the situation in Iraq remains grave.

How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.

Overall the report was accurate and the gentlemen made an accurate assessment about the Iraqi government.

Iraqi politicians of all stripes continue to dawdle and maneuver for position against one another when major steps towards reconciliation — or at least accommodation — are needed.

They failed to mention the corruption and money that is not getting to rebuilding or sustaining rebuilt infrastructure.

It’s nice this op-ed made it to the mainstream media, although buried. However, as we stated, this is old news and the real reporting has come from the independent reporters on the ground, embedded with the military.

See: Michael Yon – Online Magazine and The Fourth Rail

Davis-Bacon is the Depression era legislation that forces federal construction contracts to pay a “prevailing union wage” — determined by the Department of Labor — rather than a market wage.

Another words, it’s government regulation and tax!

A fat farm bill, hopefully headed for a veto, is in Congress flush with subsidies to produce ethanol, the corn-based alternative fuel that can’t compete on a free-market basis. More ethanol requires more biorefineries.

The Wall Street Journal suggests:

Democrats plan to mandate Davis-Bacon wages for workers building those refineries. With nonunion builders unable to compete on price, each new refinery could cost as much as 35% more. In many rural areas with little or no union activity, this artificially high labor cost could even make the prospect of building an ethanol plant a net loss.

In a nutshell, or corncob, Americans would foot the bill for this union handout in the form of higher prices at the gas pump. OUCH!

Why not simply construct new refineries in America and tell the Sierra Club to stuff it and have Al Gore to bug out? Liberals in Congress love a good tax hike while appeasing their union base. America has not built a new oil refinery in 30 years and the Left-Wing Nuts will continue to block building more.

American oil production is declining while the cost of gas at the pump is increasing. Besides the multitude of taxes buried into a gallon of gas, lack of refining capabilities in the United States is the biggest problem effecting price. It’s as simple as supply vs. demand.

In 1920 it was estimated that the world supply of oil was 60 billion barrels. By 1950 it was up to 600 billion, and by 1990 to two trillion. In 2000 the world supply of oil was estimated to be three trillion barrels.

The government’s Energy Information Administration reports that U.S. crude oil field production declined to 1.9 billion barrels in 2005 from 3.5 billion in 1970, and the share of our oil that is imported has increased to 60% from 27% in 1985. The price of gasoline has risen to $3.02 this month from $2 in today’s dollars in 1985. There is cause and effect in these numbers not an oil crisis.

Political Oil Restrictions

A National Petroleum Council study released last week reports that 40 billion barrels of America’s “recoverable oil reserves are off limits or are subject to significant lease restrictions”–half inshore and half offshore–and similar restrictions apply to more than 250 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Access to the 10 billion barrels of oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve has been prohibited for decades. Some 85 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas exist on the Outer Continental Shelf.

The House voted down an amendment that would have allowed the expansion of coastal drilling for oil and natural gas.

The Senate voted to mandate a reduction in projected future oil usage of 10 million barrels a day, or 35%. How the Senators assumed they could cause a reduction in demand is beyond reasonable thought.

Congress wants to block drilling for more American oil while at the same time blocking the importation of oil. Political meddling will cause and oil crisis and we can call it “Jim Carter Economics.”

Liberals “Nuke” Nuclear Plants

President Bush has called for more nuclear power.

“Our country has not ordered a new nuclear power plant since the 1970s,” declared Mr. Bush.

He recommends that we build three new nuclear plants a year to meet our energy needs. Liberals oppose the idea and have for years.

Consumers Foot the Bill

Pete du Pont, chairman of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, writes:

Ethanol is a politically hot energy substance produced from crops like corn, soybeans, sunflowers and switch grass. Current law requires 7.5 billion gallons to be produced by 2012; the new Senate bill would increase that to 36 billion by 2022.

But ethanol is not a good gasoline substitute. It takes some seven gallons of oil to produce eight gallons of corn-based ethanol–diesel fuel for the tractors to plant and harvest the corn, pesticides to protect it, and fuel for trucks to transport the ethanol around the country. So there is not much energy gain, nor with all the gasoline involved does it help with global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. And ethanol yields one-third less energy per gallon than gasoline, so that mileage per gallon of ethanol-blended auto fuel is less than gasoline mileage.

Producers get a 51-cent-a-gallon subsidy and are protected from international ethanol imports by a 2.5% tariff and an ethanol import duty of 54 cents a gallon. These subsidies have brought more than 100 American ethanol refineries into operation, and another six dozen are going to be built, which has nearly doubled the price of corn, raised the cost of beef and other corn-fed livestock, and increased the cost of milk and corn syrup for soft-drink manufacturers.

Look no further than Congress when your grocery and gasoline bill rises, which has already begun. America works best when government is not at work and we will all pay the price as Liberals in Congress take care of unions and ignore the path to resources that have always existed.

President Bush said we are addicted to oil but those resources are bountiful. Congress has an appetite to squander tax money, increase consumer expense and increase taxes directly and indirectly across the board.

While politicians cry there is an “oil crisis” the truth is Congress is busy increasing the cost of living for every American. Maybe they should join the Iraqi parliament and go on vacation.

Sens. Baucus and Smith

Washington D.C - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and member Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) Porkers of the Month for July, 2007.

They have led the effort to expand, instead of reform, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). SCHIP was created in 1997, and approximately $40 billion has been spent over 10 years to help states provide health insurance coverage to children in low-income families who earned too much to qualify for Medicaid. The original eligible population was families with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $40,000 for a family of four in 2007. Several states, using Medicaid waivers, have expanded the eligibility level to 300 percent of poverty and added new populations, such as pregnant women and other adults, costing taxpayers additional monies. The Bush administration’s budget included a five-year $4.8 billion increase in SCHIP over current levels, which was estimated to provide coverage for the families within the program’s original level of 200 percent of poverty.

The Senate Finance Committee, led by Chairman Baucus, approved a $35 billion expansion over current funding levels for SCHIP on July 19, putting the new price tag at $60 billion over five years. It will expand eligibility to families at 300 percent above the federal poverty line, or $61,950 for family of four. The legislation phases out some adult coverage, but the bill could be amended on the Senate floor by lawmakers wanting to restore such eligibility and expand coverage to those families at 400 percent of poverty, or $82,600.

Expanding access to federal government healthcare will dramatically increase the power of the government in all healthcare decision-making, including treatments, drug and physician availability, and medical research, paving the way toward universal healthcare. Families who currently have private coverage will have a strong incentive to switch to the SCHIP program, crowding out private insurance and raising the price for everyone else.

To pay for SCHIP’s higher costs, Sen. Smith proposed raising tobacco taxes up to $1.00 per pack, an increase of 61 cents or 156 percent.  The Finance Committee bill includes such an increase, as well as a 20,000 percent rise in cigar taxes, from five cents to $9.95 per cigar. Ironically, cigarette taxes target those SCHIP is supposed to help: the working poor, who are statistically more likely to smoke. Excessively high excise taxes lead many consumers to circumvent the tax by purchasing products out-of-state, online, or through illegal sales. It also reduces the number of smokers. Paradoxically, the Heritage Foundation found that the government needs 9 million more smokers in the next five years to pay for the program, and 22.4 million by 2017. Since that is unlikely, projected excise tax revenues will not materialize and all taxpayers will foot the bill for SCHIP in other ways.

For pushing a program that is the first step in creating government-controlled universal healthcare, instead of enacting reforms such as adopting tax credits or converting SCHIP into a defined contribution to allow low-income families to purchase private health insurance, and increasing taxes in a manner that will not provide sufficient funding, CAGW names Sens. Max Baucus and Gordon Smith its July 2007 Porkers of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.