....Then let's just sell Alaska!

I am a big fan of the creative, out of the box ideas to solve seemingly intractable problems. Sometimes when an idea is good enough, you can solve more than one problem with the same idea. I think I have a winner here, a homerun, a grandslam, the idea of the decade, maybe the century.

I think we should sell Alaska.

Look, if we are not going to make the best use of Alaska's resources, dadgummit, let's sell it to someone with enough capitalist moxy who will. Why does this make so much sense?...Easy:

1) Energy and commodity prices are at record highs and going higher.

2) We are drowning in debt.

This is one of those rare opportunities to help solve multiple problems with one stroke of genius. Alaska is chocked full of natural resources....and not just oil. We apparently are too timid or too preoccupied with other things, like congressional hearings into steroid use in baseball or what kind of coffee cups to use on Capitol Hill to get around to making the best use of Alaskan resources, so, our time is up. Time to sell Alaska to a country that will make Alaska the breadbasket (or barrel) of natural resources for the world. We have shown for 50 years that we are not interested in making Alaska all that it can be. Alaska has been misallocated, so it is time to reallocate.

All proceeds from the sale of Alaska go directly to retiring debt. I doubt we will get 14 trillion for it, but who knows, those Chinese have a lot of cash sitting around. The good news for whoever buys Alaska is that at least they will have a tangible asset for their money instead of just a promise by the US Government to pay them back. This will help our debt problem. It will deliver a tremendous supply of oil and natural gas tothe market driving down energy costs. Let's face it, other than a few displaced Alaskans, this is a win/win/win.

I am hoping England can come up with the cash to buy Alaska. They already know how to do the oil business and I feel like we kind of owe them one for kicking their butts in the Revolution.

The only fly in this ointment is how to make 49 stars look good on the American flag. I hope this is not a deal breaker, because I think this idea, once in the market, will quickly get legs.