Pataki and Pickens On US Dependence On Foreign Energy & Money

George Pataki and T. Boone Pickens engaged in a rather novel discussion on CNBC yesterday morning. Pataki was a guest host, while Pickens appeared, by phone I think, to discuss energy policy.

Without having arranged it, both agreed on the need to wean US off of foreign oil and financing.

It wasn't always like this, but now it is. For decades, Cassandras have preached the evils of US foreign-held debt and imported oil. Back then, however, the US GDP grew faster than the deficit, and the Mideast wasn't sponsoring anti-American terrorists, nor growing particularly powerful in its own right.

Now, the US deficit is growing much faster than GDP, causing understandable consternation among global holders of US debt. Meanwhile, a tipping point seems to have been reached on oil purchases, as other sovereign nations either nationalize their oil fields or make aggressive bids, as nations, to develop the energy resources of other countries.

Oil has become a weapon in the hands of our enemies, exacerbating our deficits. And our mounting debt, also in the hands of unfriendly nations, adds to the perils confronting the US.

Both Pataki and Pickens decried the dependence of our country, succinctly, on foreign financing and energy sources.

It was a completely non-partisan, honest expression of the twin challenges facing a US which has spent itself into a dangerous fiscal situation while continuing to import oil that is a much-desired global commodity.