In the last decade, Republicans sent President Clinton a bill to drill for more domestic oil to make us less dependent on foreign product. We would be producing a lot more oil, and prices would be lower if it had become law, but Clinton vetoed it, and that's why we are in the mess we're in now.

Actually, it's another left-wing lie that passing a drilling bill now would have no effect on today's oil prices. Just the act of declaring a pro-production oil and gas policy would "send a message to the market and result in lower prices for oil and gas," John McCain is telling voters on the stump.

International oil traders bet on what the world's supplies will be in the future because supply determines price. Increasing oil exploration and production will drive future prices down. We saw an example of that this last week when crude oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell sharply by about $11 a barrel in two days after the Energy Department reported that commercial petroleum stocks rose the previous week.

Americans instinctively understand this common-sense axiom of supply and demand economics. That's why polls show that over 70 percent of us support drilling for more oil in wilderness areas and beneath our oceans. But our patience is coming to an end with the Obama Democrats who say no to more oil drilling, no to more refineries and no to nuclear power. Last week, the Gallup Poll said the Democratic Congress's approval rating has sunk to 14 percent. It has dropped below 20 percent only six times in the last 34, years and the Pelosi Congress accounts for four of them.

The conventional wisdom says Democrats will likely make major gains in Congress in November, but they may not do as well as expected if the voters blame them for inaction on the biggest economic issue in the country. The GOP will be hammering them on this for the rest of the election cycle.

There's a way to start digging ourselves out of this deep energy hole, and that is at the ballot box. Remember that the next time you fill up your tank.