When Barack Obama told a Pennsylvania audience this past weekend that "We can't drill our way out of this," he was repeating the same line that Nancy Pelosi used days earlier and that Harry Reid used on Wednesday.

The Big Three Democrats are thus all agreed that their party has given up on bringing down the cost of oil and thus the cost of gas at the pump.

Because demand for oil isn't going to drop due to growth around the globe, the only way to bring the cost of a gallon of gas at the pump down is to increase the supply of oil. The only way to increase the supply of oil for the present is to explore for more oil and then bring it to market. That means drilling.

In the U.S. that means drilling on the outer continental shelf, more than 50 miles from the nearest coastline.

John McCain favors allowing states to do just that. Obama, Pelosi and Reid oppose it. To get the exploration underway a federal ban on such off shore drilling must be lifted, but House Democrats have blocked that move, most recently this very month. They and their presidential candidate would rather see your wallet bleed and American growth deteriorate than cross their political allies and contributors in the environmental movement. House Republicans should offer a new amendment lifting the ban on outer continental shelf drilling if the price of gas hit $6.00 a gallon. Democrats would still oppose it. Follow it with an amendment at $8.00 a galklon and then $10.00. Get the point across that the Democrats just don't care how high the price goes. They do not care about the impact on the average American family.

(The environmental activists, by the way, are seeking to use the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species to further impede oil exploration even where it is legal. Their agenda is to drive the cost of oil and thus gas to the sky to force you out of your car and America out of the economic growth business.)

The DDDs have three talking points: Exploration won't bring down the cost of gas very much. There isn't that much oil to find. And oil companies aren't using their existing leases anyway.

Both arguments reveal the DDDs as either ignorant or dishonest.

First, the announcement by the U.S. of an immediate move to begin outer continental shelf drilling would send oil prices downward and probably significantly as the speculators' premium vanished quickly. No one wants to get caught holding the contract for high priced oil when new reserves are discovered. Make no mistake, the refusal of Obama et al to push for outer continental shelf exploration is costing you a great deal at the pump this very day and every day the ban remains in effect. Continued...