Thanks to all the witnesses today.
I want to begin by saying that the challenge for any government is in how it deals with events. One unforeseen event, of course, was the drop in the global price of oil.
I want to ask Mr. Myers first about what kind of role our government's economic record played, and how important it was, in the unforeseen drop in global oil prices. You remember that when we first came into government, we paid down a massive amount of public debt. We're going to be the first government of the G-7 to balance our budget. We've created 1.2 million new jobs since the depths of the recession. We have the lowest net debt to GDP ratio of any country in the G-7.
How important are those factors in light of what we see on the global scene right now in terms of lower oil prices? How has that protected us or cushioned the potential blow that this obviously could have had if we had been in a weaker position?