Yesterday morning, I submitted a “Write Now” response to the St. Cloud Times Editorial Board’s July 28 editorial, which challenged the major-party endorsed candidates to offer specifics on how their respective energy proposals will achieve the goal of reducing the price of gas.

War, Dollar, Inflation Drive Gas Prices

Aubrey Immelman, Sartell
St. Cloud Times
July 28, 2008

Today’s Times’ Our View, “Candidates must add details on their plans,” invites U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and her Democratic challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg to explain in detail how each of their respective energy plans will achieve the objective of reducing the price of gasoline.

While the focus on the two major-party endorsed candidates is understandable, party nomination is by primary election. For Bachmann to be on the ballot in November, she first has to win the Sept. 9 primary, in which I am challenging her for the Republican nomination.

In that context, I offer a modest proposal for reducing the price of gas: Stop printing and borrowing money to fund unnecessary foreign wars — specifically, the war in Iraq.

Printing money and going deeper into debt to pay for the war and occupation creates inflation and drives down the value of the dollar, which adds to the high price at the pump for U.S. consumers.

Yes, we need to increase the oil supply by expanded drilling; yes, we need to reduce demand by conserving energy; yes, we need to explore alternative energy sources. But reducing the price of gas cannot be achieved with simplistic solutions and empty promises.

No sensible plan to reduce the price of gas can ignore the links among war spending, monetary policies, inflation, the depreciating dollar, the dollar foreign exchange rate, and the distortion of market forces resulting from foreign fuel subsidies on the price we pay at the pump.

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In the afternoon, I met with Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner and Emergency Manager Marvin Klug to learn more about important law enforcement and public safety concerns in the county. In the coming weeks, I plan to meet with law enforcement and first responder leaders in other Sixth District cities and counties as I formulate my position statement on law enforcement / public safety.

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner

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In other news on the campaign trail, Blip.TV has released a web video in which I discuss my core campaign issues of national security, border security/enforcing immigration law, and law enforcement / public safety on its “The UpTake” program.

Meet Rep. Bachmann’s Republican primary challenger (06:48)

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Also yesterday, Christopher Truscott published the following comment on his blog:

Mr. Immelman responded to “CD-6 Candidate Bob Anderson: ‘I’m in a Battle Royal’” yesterday. I’ll reprint [Immelman’s] comment here:

“The world is better off without Saddam Hussein …”
— Bob Anderson

Only in the most general sense, that Saddam was a brutal dictator who fully deserved his fate at the gallows.

However, removing Saddam has not improved U.S. national security. Saddam posed no significant threat to U.S. national security and, in fact, served as a bulwark (or defense) against the expansion of Iranian power in the Middle East.

Post-Saddam Iraq presents a much more complex and difficult-to-manage national security challenge for the United States than Saddam-era Iraq.