Look, I realize the people who develop these studies have vested interests, but I don't totally dismiss the supposed findings.
I am a firm believer in the "multiplier effect" related to dollars spent domestically in the United States. For each dollar earned and spent in the U. S., perhaps 3.5 to 10 dollars are subsequently spent. If you consider the multiplier effect on those expenditures, it's almost an endless ripple effect across the economy.
For this reason, I should be motivated to be on board with this. For the reasons already explained I remain less than willing to expose this nation to being a heavy importer of oil in the future.
This may be flawed logic on my part, but I'm not the only person who thinks along these lines.
I think you'd have to admit the Republicans on Capital Hill are pretty much all-in when it comes to Chamber of Commerce / business interests. In the article it mentions only two people who support lifting the ban.
These are two people I've never agreed with on a single issue in my life.
Thank you for your reasoned exchange. I think you raise some good points too.
IMO, the way to get this nation back on track is to return manufacturing to the United States. Until that happens, we'll never be a credible economic nation again.
For your consideration. On trying to grow manufacturing, do you think telling those who would invest to grow domestic manufacturing would be more or less encouranged if told any product they produce could not be exported, unless another company added value to it first?
Ted Cruz Amendment Would Be Difficult Vote For Some GOP Senators
http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/ted-cruz-makes-life-difficult-for-republicans-on-oil-exports-20150113
Texas senator proposes rolling back ban on oil exports
January 13, 2015
Ted Cruz is making waves.
The Republican senator from Texas and likely 2016 presidential contender has started a push to end a decades-old ban on crude exports that could force his fellow Republicans to take tough votes.
Cruz hopes to attach an amendment lifting the ban, which blocks most overseas shipments of U.S. oil, to legislation moving through the Senate to greenlight the Keystone XL oil-sands pipeline.
The push allows Cruz to cast himself as a free-market enabler of the American energy boom, which has unleashed a torrent of crude oil onto the domestic market as a result of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling’s one-two punch. It also puts him out front on energy priorities—ahead of others in the Senate considering presidential bids, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who have so far kept a low profile during the Keystone debate.