Last week the House voted 277 to 148 to temporarily extend the tax cuts put in place by the Bush administration as well as approve a series of smaller tax credits, cuts and extensions.  The identical measure was recently passed by the Senate paving way for the legislation to make it to President Obama’s desk.

Some Republicans who supported the measure did so with reservations.  “I don’t like this bill that’s before us, but I like even less the idea of increasing the tax burden on working Americans,” said Rep. David Drier, the top Republican on the Rules Committee, who voted for the bill. But Drier’s Republican colleague, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, rose to say he would oppose it because the extensions did not go far enough.  “It’s a bad deal for taxpayers; it will do little to create jobs and I cannot support it,” Pence said. “This is a tough call. No Republican in this Congress wants to see taxes raised on any American, but uncertainty is the enemy of prosperity.”

After the vote, Speaker-designate John Boehner praised his colleagues for approving the legislation and called on President Obama to work with Republicans in the next Congress to create more jobs.  “With nearly one in 10 Americans out of work, acting to ensure no American’s taxes go up on Jan. 1 was critically important. Failing to stop all the tax hikes would have destroyed more jobs and deepened the uncertainty in our economy,” Boehner stated. “Stopping all the tax hikes is a good first step in our efforts to reduce the uncertainty family-owned small businesses are facing, but much more needs to be done, including cutting spending, permanently eliminating the threat of job-killing tax hikes, and repealing the job-killing health care law. These are critical priorities the new majority has pledged to act on in the next Congress, and I hope President Obama will listen to the American people and work with us to stop Washington’s job-killing policies.”

The bill continues dozens of tax breaks and credits for people from the bottom of the income spectrum to the top.  If a deal hadn’t been reached, ordinary families would have returned to pre-2001 rates that would left them $3,000 a year worse off, an outcome the president described as unacceptable in a recession.

The price tag for the two-year tax cut bonanza has been estimated at $860 billion.  The government hopes that by extending these tax breaks companies will reach in their pocket and hire new staff, expand their business and reinvest their profits.

Stabilizing the real estate market remains a high priority, and continuing the Bush tax breaks is a step in the right direction.  The uncertainty over the potential tax hike had slowed the market, especially in the commercial market with a potential rise in capital gains taxes hanging over everyone’s heads.

While extending the Bush tax cuts is great move to bring the economy back to life, more incentive programs are needed to get our country back on track.  Many banks are still holding onto their funds with very strict lending standards in place.

While unemployment remains high with no major changes on the horizon, government incentives could make a great difference.  Imagine the government investing in companies by giving tax breaks to all businesses that hire new staff and keep them employed for over 6 months.  There are many ideas being tossed around that could help reduce the unemployment rate, but our government needs to take action, just as they did by extending the tax cuts.

The other day I came upon an article in Newsweek that truly caught my interest.  The article was titled “The Creativity Crisis” and the headline read “For the first time reasearcg shows that American creativity is declining.  What went wrong – and how can we fix it.”  As I read the article it occured to me the writer’s statement was just not correct.  There is plenty of creativity today in America and from Americans, it’s just that past generation fails to recognize the new gereration’s creative contributions. 

Years ago creativity was defined by invention of mechanical products.  The the cotton gin, the telephone and the assembly line were regarded as creative feats, which they were.  Today, video games are more complex than ever, televison shows and feature films are less formulaic than in the past, and art expands far beyond the canvas.  Americans are constantly looking to break new ground and explore what has not been yet discovered.

While it has been asked, what changed creativity in America, there are a few areas to visit in our educational system.  From an early age children are asked to color within the lines and are graded for such.  The better grades go to those who stay within the lines.  But it is those who see no boundries that are expressing their creativity in another way. 

The article in Newsweek continued to focus on the educational system in our country as well, noting that with the packed curriculum there is very little time for creative classes.  Art and music departments are being cut and replaced with higher level math and English courses.  Our children are being educated, but only to fit into corporate America.

As I read on it was mentioned that a prime leadership requirement is creativity.  With all that is focused every day within our schools you would think we would be preserving the creative courses somehow.  But then again, why would we – the education system in our country has been designed to help children grow into adults who fit into society’s little box.  But leaders are born, not taught.  To bring America’s creativity back we just have to begin to accept those that do differently than we do and appreciate their efforts.

On April 27, 2010 A+D Museum is hosting CELEBRATE 2010, a Grand Opening Exhibit and inaugural Fundraising Event to celebrate their newly established home.Established in response to the need for a space that would be devoted expressly to the exhibition of progressive architecture and design in Los Angeles, A+D Museum opened its doors in January 2001 in the Bradbury Building, one of downtown Los Angeles’ premiere landmark buildings. The mission of A+D museum is to celebrate and promote an awareness of progressive Architecture and Design in everyday life through exhibits, educational programs and public outreach.

Now relocated on Los Angeles’ Museum Row, A+D continues to be the only museum in Los Angeles where continuous exhibits of architecture and design are on view.  Through exhibits, symposia, multi-disciplinary projects, educational and community programming, A+D serves as a showcase for the work of important regional, national and international designers, providing a forum for contemporary issues in architecture, urbanism, and design that are helping to shape the city.

A+D Museum is located at:
6032 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA  90036

For Tickets and Event info:

http://aplusd.org/v5/celebrate2010/details-tickets/

The Brewery ArtWalk is a twice annual open studio weekend at the art complex. With over 100 participating resident artists, you will have the opportunity to see new works, discover new favorites, speak with the artists, and purchase artwork directly from the artists at studio prices.

Brewery ArtWalk
Spring 2010 – April 17 & 18
11:00 am – 6:00 pm

2100 North Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90031.
http://breweryartwalk.com/ 

Art & the City: Los Angeles An Ovation TV Original Thursday, April 15, 2010 @ 9:30pm Explore the Los Angeles art scene from home – Just Program your DVR. Host David Keeps uncovers discoveries of arts and design in highly regarded attractions as well as uncovered corners throughout the US and Europe. In this episode, David explores the scene in Los Angeles. Ovation is a television specialty channel that airs programming dedicated to the arts and contemporary culture. It features programming devoted to performance, people, art, music and film. In addition, Ovation features in-depth profiles on various artists and performers, Arts news from the U.S and around the world. 

City Councilmen Tom LeBonge has been kicking around an idea for some time now that would connect the Southern California Institute of Architecture to the Arts District located just south of the campus using an existing rail line that has been previously abandoned. This idea didn’t gain much support from the Mayors Office when it was first introduced four years ago. So when LaBonge was asked by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to sit in on the Feb. 25 Metro board meeting in the place of Councilman and Metro board member José Huizar, LaBonge made his pitch again.

Lebonge commissioned a feasibility report to be completed by Metro Staff. The report would include the environmental impacts of adding a service car to the Red and Purple Lines that would service a new station at Sixth Street near Santa Fe Avenue. Lebonge wanted to make it clear that no new track would need to be constructed and a platform could easily be erected either there or near Third Street.

LaBonge envisions the line extension as a way for people to get to and from SCI-Arc and the Arts and Industrial districts, and possibly as an opportunity to reduce congestion at Union Station’s Patsaouras Transit Plaza.

“If I can use a baseball analogy, a lot of times you try to get a hit and maybe you get a hit to the outfield but you don’t score,” LaBonge said. “I didn’t hit this one out of the park, but we’re at least in play to get around the bases.”