Politics Today

UPDATE March 4th:  Everyone is commenting on this.  Check out THIS link for a video of the interview.

As I'm getting older, I find myself watching the shows my elders watched when I was a child.  Chris Matthews and Meet the Press are two examples of the shows.  I never understood the appeal of them when I was younger and I am certain that many young people today still feel the same way.

Now I find myself becoming involved with the world around me and wondering how did I not KNOW these things?  I watched David Gregory interview John Boehner on today's episode of Meet the Press. I wasn't very impressed with the answers given by Mr. Boehner.  Politicususa.com didn't seem to enjoy it either.  See their summary here: Boehner Interview.

One of the comment that Speaker Boehner kept making was that the President received his tax increase as of January 1, 2013 and should be happy with that as he wasn't going to get any more.  This seems very short sighted of Mr. Boehner.  The deficit cannot be reduced and fixed with just spending cuts.  I think both parties need to work together and establish reasonable spending cuts and creative tax increases.

And by creative, I am talking about things like legalizing marijuana and establishing a "pot" tax similar to the cigarette taxes out there.  I think it is also time to take a look at the charitable donation deduction rules, especially with regards to religion - and all religion, I'm not picking on Catholics here.  I also think that donations from lobbyists should be highly taxed and treated separately from regular income.  They need a flat tax.  Face it, this is money a representative would not otherwise receive.  If they want to take the funds, pay the tax.

Anyone else have any creative ideas?