Patricia Schroeder: “I come to the well to speak about something that troubles me a lot. I spent 3 years of my life, and I must say they were…”

“I come to the well to speak about something that troubles me a lot. I spent 3 years of my life, and I must say they were miserable years, studying the Tax Code when I was in law school. And the one thing that was very clear in our Tax Code was you did not get a charitable deduction for political donations. If you gave to charity, fine, you got a charitable deduction. But if you gave to politics, you did not get one. I think most of us as Americans think that that is the way it should be. But we are in interesting times, very interesting times. We have a new Speaker who has found ways to stretch these things, and tonight we have a very interesting occasion going on, showing how these bright lines are being blurred more and more. If you saw the Chicago Tribune today, they are mentioning the Speaker's dinner tonight, which will cost $50,000 a plate--$50,000 a plate. But unlike a normal political contribution, $19,800 will be tax deductible. Now, what is this dinner about and how do you get the tax deduction? Well, you get the tax deduction because they are saying it goes to a nonprofit organization. But that organization happens to be the Speaker's television network called National Empowerment Television. And what is it? It does not even pretend to have balance. It does not even pretend to present both sides. It presents Newt's views 24 hours a day.…”