Solving Problems

I'll be attempting to cook again tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, I'd like to give a big thumbs-up to President Obama for his Day One decisions to close Guantanamo Bay and to freeze the higher salaries of White House Employees. These are two very nice steps toward having a government that leads by example, and doesn't just tell its citizens to be responsible with money and ethics. I doubt it'll be the death of hypocrisy, but it's certainly a start.

I'd also like to offer a suggestion I came up with: Tax Credits for Volunteers. President Obama wants more people to volunteer, and the Republicans still inexplicably want tax cuts (if the government collects less money and spends more, it'll create unicorns), so why not combine the two? There can even be tiers - the casual volunteer can get a $100 tax credit, the moderate volunteer can get $500, and the hard-core volunteer can get a $2,000 credit on their federal taxes. Setting up the bureaucracy to monitor and verify claims by volunteers would create jobs, and who knows, maybe all that volunteering would actually help out communities.

What do you think?