What Washington needs right now is a working mother calling the shots. Who knows better about compromise than us? My three-inch roots are living proof that holiday spending came before personal upkeep this year - prioritizing spending needs can in fact be done. If working mothers ran things in DC we'd do the exact same things we do every single day to keep our families and careers on track - and without all the theatrics and drama from inside the beltway. No one pops champagne when we manage to feed our families, pay our utility bills, make our car payments, pay the mortgage, and allocate for pet projects like splurging on a pair of new yoga pants. No newspaper lauds our efforts when we manage to do all of this without dipping into the emergency fund or going into credit card debt - our balanced budgets are considerably less noteworthy but certainly not less important.

And anyone who says this can't be done on a national level because it's too complex is a total liar, liar pants on fire. Politicians I've discovered, like most "experts" in any industry, want everyone to think that what they do is so beyond the comprehension of the common person that we just need to trust that they are doing what is best for us. Having lived in DC and worked on Capital Hill for several years I can tell you that this is complete crap. Politicians can solve big problems - like the fiscal cliff. But they MUST utilize common sense, foster mutual respect, and most importantly compromise. Every mother in America knows raising a family involves all of these basic principals. Don't hit your brother, how do you think that makes him feel, say you are sorry, if you want to use his iPad which toy will you let him use, please be nice to each other. As parents we utter these phrases so frequently we almost forget how powerful they are - and clearly our representatives have forgotten as well.

Our representatives in DC need to hear these phrases in a bad way. They need to stop listening to the lobbyists and pandering to their big donors and treating our political system like one big game. They need to listen to the mothers of this nation and we need to give them something to think about. Because this fiscal cliff partisan game of chicken is dancing on our last nerves! This last-minute incompetence will have a direct impact on our monthly budgets, our jobs and those of our spouses, and the value of our retirement accounts. These are real concrete things that Washington is messing around with and enough is enough! Let's give them a time-out and ask them to think about why they are being punished and how they will change in the future. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue - this is a mother issue. And no one wants to mess with a mama bear.

So I'm asking you to pick up the phone or log into your email account and send a message to your representative. One interesting tidbit I picked up during my time in politics is that not many people reach out to their representatives at times like this. Oh, sure you get the same whack jobs who call in whenever anything is up for a vote, but typically only a handful of folks will call into voice their opinion on any issue. And here's the cool thing - those calls and emails get logged in and the congressman or senator will actually pay attention to them. They do want to get re-elected after all. So let's send them a tsunami of messages from moms telling them to stop messing around and get the job done we sent them there to do.

Check out what the fiscal cliff could mean to your family financially: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/tax-cut-scenarios/?hpid=z1

Find your Congressman's contact information: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Find your Senator's contact information: http://www.senate.gov/

If you like my blog you’ll love my book. Buy The Working Mommy’s Manual on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Working-Mommys-Manual-Nicole-Corning/dp/0615637418/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dp_6ZRcqb0QFT7P8_tt