Tax Cut Extension: We Need Civil Problem Solving Beyond Bad Compromises

I will agree with you that speeding money we do not have is foolish.

We can dicker when that spending began but there is no question that borrowing money from other countries is a very bad idea.

It is also a revenue problem. If you cut taxes you do not have enough money to run the government. Yes, there is unnecessary spending. I can think of the the two wars and the military/contractor bonanza that has sucked this country dry.

I weep not for corporations that have spent PAC and lobby money to reduce and evade paying their fair share.

You have to produce more than you spend. We no longer do that. There is a need to redefine what we generate, create and sell to other nations.

That is one of the areas that we need to focus on. Not the so-called oppression of multinational corporation.

Gena Haskett is a BlogHer Contributing Editor. My Blogs: Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com ) and Create Video Notebook ( http://createvideonotebook.blogspot.com )

First of all, so many people don't know that the United States already has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world! And yet when our businesses can't compete globally we fret and blame them for starting businesses in country with less of a tax burden. How else are they going to be able to lower their prices.

Second, the United States government doesn't have a revenue problem. They have a SPENDING problem. It's not that they aren't getting enough of our money, it's that they're getting too much and feel entitled to it and to spend it on irresponsible things that we don't need. I'm glad that the Bush tax cuts have been extended. Removing them would be a tax increase and taking money out of our economy right now would be a nightmare on top of this nightmare.

I've been so frustrated, I can't speak. I don't think people are being realistic and I agree it's on both sides, progressive and conservative.

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

We could change things. If three million women said we are truly pissed and we choose to do better it would happen organically from the ground up.

I believe there is a chance of that happening without blind rage attacks from vested interests.

I don't know what the flint could be to spark such a discussion.

Gena Haskett is a BlogHer Contributing Editor. My Blogs: Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com ) and Create Video Notebook ( http://createvideonotebook.blogspot.com )

Thanks Gena. I agree that I am frustrated by the lack of straight talk or realistic thinking.

I started to leave a comment, but I have a personal philosophy: If I leave a comment that hits three paragraphs, then it's really crying out to be a post. So I wrote my first political post in a long while.

It's here ( http://homepage.mac.com/elisa_camahort/iblog/C7876... ), and it may piss off those both left and right, because by my standards they are both "doin' it wrong" right now. :)

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Gena, you make a lot of good points.

Nothing is going to change until Americans take more seriously their responsibility to vote. Turn-out in the mid-terms was about 40% nation wide, and the mid-term electorate was disproportionately, old, white and conservative.

Young voters tend to be presidential election voters and don’t make the connection between voting for some senator they know little about and what the president can achieve.

I recall President Obama saying in a tone of frustration bordering on despair, “we have to figure out some way to get the American people to pay more attention to what their representatives are doing.”

Wish I had the answer to this.

Historically Party officials have not been all that interested in increasing turn-out. They are more comfortable turning out a smaller electorate they can influence than dealing with the unpredictability of lots of new voters

Karen Bojar

http://www.the-next-stage.com/

:)

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

1. I live within my budget.
2. I fully intend to sleep and do other stuff with un-married men.
3. I watch cartoons.
4. I lust in my heart and other places in my body.

Ain't gonna happen, a thought devoutly to be un-wished.

Gena Haskett is a BlogHer Contributing Editor. My Blogs: Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com ) and Create Video Notebook ( http://createvideonotebook.blogspot.com )

Because it is possible. We are going through a societal quake that requires us to think and act differently.

Once upon a time people thought it useless to educate girls. That changed.

Once upon a time 18-year olds demanded the right to vote. That changed but not sure if we haven't killed that need for engagement.

Before we can do better we have to be able to talk and communicate the common ground, the focal point where we can agree. That is possible but we have to push that forward.

If we want to.

Gena Haskett is a BlogHer Contributing Editor. My Blogs: Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com ) and Create Video Notebook ( http://createvideonotebook.blogspot.com )

I'm really hyper-sensitive to groups claiming to represent folks that have strong ties to the very ones that got us in this mess in the first place.

I'd need to know who is funding the organization, who are their donors and why now and not before?

There are a new class of non-profits that are not; they could be off-shoots of advocacy orgs. or political PACs.

Not saying this one is but I want to be sure. Thanks for the link.

Gena Haskett is a BlogHer Contributing Editor. My Blogs: Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com ) and Create Video Notebook ( http://createvideonotebook.blogspot.com )

Let me put it this way, there is a civil responsibility for all adults to participate in government and to address problems.

Many of us will not take one night to attend a city council meeting at least once a month, let alone once a year.

And voting? Only when it becomes the hip thing to do.

Or participate on the school board or take the time to really know what a congressional bill contains. The health care bill was the first time that thousands of Americans actually chose to find out for themselves.

So if there is a sense that others are taking control it might mean the we collectively abdicated a certain amount. There might be a good reason but have to look at how we got here just a little bit before going forward.

Thanks,

Gena Haskett is a BlogHer Contributing Editor. My Blogs: Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com ) and Create Video Notebook ( http://createvideonotebook.blogspot.com )

And besides, there are what - 10 million BlogHers? maybe more - you are so in.

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

That is all.

Rita Arens authors Surrender Dorothy ( http://bit.ly/Qp0sS ) and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak ( http://tinyurl.com/9pg62e ). She is BlogHer's assignment and syndication editor.

Not only am I not kidding, it is my personal mission in life to make it happen. :)

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

I just don't have an answer. The grass-roots groups are the place to start, but it's kind of like having an Independent party. It never wins. The only thing that will truly "change" our country at this point is a full-on revolution. Not the violent kind, but we somehow need to separate money and politics and get back to what our forefathers' intentions were for our country. Wish I had a suggestion.

Jennifer Barr is a wife and working mom of two beautiful girls, 3 going on 13 and 9 months, which means she's sleep deprived but constantly kept on her toes! Most of those experiences are chronicled on her blog, http://midwestmomments.blogspot.com.

Lots of interesting grass roots stuff happening for people like us. "No Labels" is the latest -- check it out: http://nolabels.org/

I think you're right on the money. Our political system is broken. So, too, is our collective will to enact change. I think we've become too used to having others control our lives, whether they be employers, politicians or rapacious marketers. We have to learn how to call our own shots.

A big part of this involves education and the willingness on the part of Americans to move beyond their own belief systems. Stop ranting and start thinking. Do your homework before you start screaming, okay?