Where to begin?
The Democratic controlled Senate passed a bill to extend the tax cuts for, wait for it, two months provided that the president decides about the Keystone XL pipeline in the next 60 days. Having kicked the can down the road the Senate recessed and left town!
Meanwhile the Republican controlled house previously passed an extension bill complete with a number of poison pills involving Keystone, spending cuts, and restrictions on EPA rules knowing full well that the President has said he would veto such a bill! House speaker Boehner now wants the Senate to return to Washington to negotiate a compromise bill noting that making tax policy two months at a time is nuts.
Tax policy two months at a time IS NUTS! Common Sense definitely agrees. So is preventing the EPA from doing it's job and subverting the decision process on Keystone XL. But then this is our do nothing Congress and it's complete disconnect from the needs of the country.
Common Sense thinks the tax cuts should be extended for low and middle class incomes. Jobs only exist when there is consumption. The overwhelming number of potential consumers are low and middle class. When these people do not have the means to consume virtually noting can be done to create jobs. Simply put wealth, in and of itself, doesn't create jobs absent consumers.
As to Keystone, Common Sense thinks that while it will create some jobs for a short period of time that is not remotely sufficient reason to subvert the decision process. Keystone is not about jobs, it's about the environment and shipping oil to Gulf coast refineries. It's about the needs of big oil. While the country needs big oil at least until we have a viable alternative supply, long term we need the 1500 waterways and underlying aquifer that supplies one of the most productive food production regions on the planet.
Common Sense thinks both the House and Senate should be ashamed, the House for passing a bill that ties desperately needed tax relief for low and middle income families to the needs of big oil, the Senate for passing an equally disgusting bill that makes tax policy two months at a time.
Common Sense thinks it's time to replace our Congressional representatives.
Your congress, you know the one that doesn't seem to be able to do much about the critical problems facing the average American, lobbied effectively by large copyright holders proposes to place unreasonable burdens on internet companies to monitor the internet for copyright violations and to deny US citizens access to sites that allegedly violate copyrights by blocking IPs. These bills are wrong headed, heavy handed, and simply won't work in Common Sense's view. They should be vigorously opposed. Write your congressman to oppose SOPA and PIPA.
