Every major economic indicator is signaling a slowdown. Slowdowns, even recessions, can and should be expected. Every adult should be aware and have a general understanding of this process appropriately called the economic cycle.

But what is happening is more than a slowdown. Worldwide crude oil prices are now well over $100 a barrel — up 19 percent last month alone — and gasoline prices are increasing daily with the price at the pump expected to near $4 a gallon soon.

Nationally, according to AAA, the average U.S. price per gallon for regular gas is 69 cents higher today than last year at this time. Regionally, the average per-gallon price for regular gas last week ranged from $3.06 in the Midwest to $3.45 on the Pacific coast, which historically is the highest. What appears out of kilter is the price in the Southeast, which at $3.16 is 1 cent more than New England, which has zero oil refining facilities.

As gas prices escalate, the individual purchasing power of American citizens deteriorates. The politics domestically and internationally makes matters worse.

President Bush warned OPEC last Tuesday. “I think it’s a mistake to have your biggest customers’ economies slowing down as a result of higher energy prices.”

The next day, OPEC cartel President Chakib Khelil retorted, “The mismanagement of the U.S. economy is to blame.” He rebuffed calls for increased production saying, “there is sufficient supply” and “there’s plenty of oil there, definitely not due to a lack of crude.”

But the OPEC statement is contradicted by the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration report that domestic oil supplies “fell by 3.1 million barrels,” which set off a new frenzy of investing in oil futures.

The EIA figures confirm that demand at the pump is consuming the distributed supply coming out of the domestic refining pipeline. Thus, domestic refineries have drawn down resources in order to meet continued demand at the pump.

The bottom line is gasoline literally fuels the American economy for individual mobility and to move food and goods for commerce. Therefore, the need for increased domestic oil drilling is absolutely necessary. If they will not lead, politicians, bureaucrats and agenda-driven special interests must get out of the way. Many will continue to mouth objections; but Americans will accept no more excuses and no more delays. Increased domestic oil drilling must begin immediately.

Although last week Bush said, we “need to be off oil,” every president since Richard Nixon has said essentially the same thing. But all those presidents have known that we need oil, and our current president, a former oil man, I believe, knows this better than most. So Bush should act immediately to develop domestic oil resources and ensure that his successor continues that development by starting new domestic drilling now.

If our president is reading this column the same day you are, here is how I would urge him to proceed in order to make a “U.S. Oil Drilling Action Plan” a reality in four days.

Day 1 — Today:

First, outline on paper his own plan of immediate action to implement increased oil drilling throughout each of the 50 states.

Second, personally telephone each candidate for president — Clinton, McCain, Obama — and say: “A U.S. Air Force plane will pick you up tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., wherever you are, and return you to Andrews Air Force Base. There will be a confidential White House meeting tomorrow at 11 a.m. in the Oval Office. There will be no prior announcement and no media leaks about this meeting. You will learn the topic when you are in attendance. Again, no public comments, no briefing of staff, no media leaks, period.”

Day 2:

There are numerous scenarios for how the meeting flows. Here is one:

President Bush leads the session. Vice President Cheney attends as an Action Scribe. The president introduces the topic and purpose of the working session: “We are here to develop an ‘Oil Drilling Action Plan’ for our country. To do that, we must all work together. As leaders, our individual and collective focus today must be on domestic oil for the United States.”

For such a meeting to happen, we must set aside skepticism and cynicism. As citizens, we should expect that every presidential candidate would agree and unequivocally support such a plan.

Then, at the subsequent White House press conference, Bush would announce that the achieved agreement had been reached and that the three candidates for president will jointly sponsor and submit later the same day to the U.S. Senate legislation to implementing the plan. All five participants would call for a full vote in both houses within 48 hours of submission with no amendments. And, Bush would reiterate that he wants the legislation as submitted on his desk within 48 hours for his signature.

This approach solves our oil needs and enables every candidate for the presidency to be part of the solution. The new jobs, capital investment and more resulting from this plan would be a real economic stimulus. And it would be a victory for the American people that would go far beyond politics.