It was several years ago during the Q&A portion of a presentation I was giving about the federal deficit in a VERY socially and fiscally conservative suburb of Detroit that I was asked a simple and very sincere question: Why doesn't the federal government legalize heroin and crack and then tax the sales?
I was stunned both by the question and by the people who were asking it. They were asking about the mechanics of how it would work, how much revenue legalization would bring in, etc. They were specifically asking about heroin and crack.
And they were completely serious.
Which is why this story by Anita Kumar from yesterday's The Washington Post about a Virginia delegate introducing a bill to figure out how much revenue the state would bring in if it legalized marijuana wasn't as shocking to me as it otherwise might have been.
If this clip from earlier today in the House floor when Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D-AZ) resigned doesn't make you at least a little teary, you have no soul.
Last night' State of the Union Address almost certainly made deficit hawks very unhappy, extremely angry and, from a policy perspective, close to suicidal. After pushing hard for so long to make the deficit the issue, it was barely a footnote in the president's hour-plus address and wasn't missed that much.
It took less than an hour for the Committee for a Responsible Budget to send out a statement excoriating the White House for missing "...an opportunity to throw down the gauntlet to Congress on the debt and demand a large, bipartisan debt reduction plan this year."
If the speech is an indication, the administration has no interest in throwing gauntlets or anything else on the budget this year.
I was surprised. With Congress unwilling or unable to do much of anything on the budget, I had expected the White House to call for the House and Senate to deal with the budget and to offer to meet anytime, any place, etc. At the very least this would have put it in a good position to be critical when that didn't happen.
851 pm:
OK, let's get this show on the road. I'll be commenting on a variety of aspects of the speech but...wait for it...anything having to do with the budget, spending, taxes, deficits, and the debt. I know, that's a shock.
859 pm:
Just read an embargoed copy of the speech. No details per the embargo but I'm definitely looking forward to comparing how it sounds to how its how it reads.
909 pm:
A wonderful moment with Gabby Gifford. No doubt that will be the picture seens everywhere tomorrow.
910 pm:
Hard to argue with the majesty of the House chamber. No wonder the minority response isn't ever as well received.
914 pm:
Let it be noted that "An economy built to last" was said for the first time 4 minutes into the speech. Sounds like the tag line to an auto commercial.
916 pm:
The word wasn't used by "equality" just entered the conversation.
917 pm:
The president sounds angry and not professorial. That will play well with an electorate that sees the economy as an emotional issue.
920 pm:
"An economy built to last" for the second time.
925 pm:
