tavis: good evening from los angeles. congress is back in session. the first order of business, trying to reach an agreement on the bush era tax cuts. joining us is the man in the middle, virginia senator mark warner. rainn wilson is also here. in addition to his role on a popular series, he is out with a new book "soulpancake." >> all that i know is that his name is james and he needs extra help with his reading. >> to everyone making a

difference, you help us all to do better. >> nationwide supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, nationwide is proud to join tavis in improving financial literacy. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- tavis: senator mark warner is serving his first term in the senate. he is a key member of the budget and banking committees. he is behind a proposed compromise with the bush era tax

cuts. he joins us from capitol hill. good to have you on this program. there is so much talk about these tax cuts. congress is back in session. what is going to happen here? >> it is still undone. both parties agree that 98% of americans should not have their taxes changed at all. we are not going to mess with their taxes. the debate has come, what do we do with the top 2%? both parties have a case to make. democrats say that if you extend the top 2% for 10 years, it adds to the deficit. the republicans have said, we should not take any money out of

the economy right now while the economy is still in recession. that makes some sense as well. there has been a political compromise. maybe we should extend the top 2% for two years. it seems to me that every time that congress has a chance to punt on a hard issue, it will punt. delaying this issue for two years will not make a lot of sense. the economists have said that if you give the folks at the top, it may not be your best bang for the buck. i would say, let the top 2% to expire. the next two years, the money that the government would have taken in, let's use that for targeted business tax cuts so that we can get the private

sector rehiring again. one thing that has been absent from a lot of the news, a large american companies, since this recession has began, are actually financially better today than they were in 2007. they are sitting on the $2 trillion in cash. we are saying, how can we get that cash offer of the sideline? we try to make the choice between investing here and investing abroad. tavis: what kind of hearing is your proposed compromise getting? >> from the business community, it is getting a better response. it is hard for businesses to say, my business can be more competitive and my business can do better. most do not mind going back to the same tax rates they paid under president clinton when the

economy was doing well. i find that when i am doing this idea with my colleagues, the democrats are saying that this makes some sense. it recognizes that both political parties have something to offer on this. it would go a long way, which business specific tax cuts? we should encourage the business community to help us say, where will we get the best bang for the buck? one of the things that concerns me is the harsh state of relations between congress and the business community. we have to realize that you cannot be pro jobs and pro- business. tavis: someone say, how is extending the tax cuts to the rich and the lucky going to help

the economy? our research suggests that they are not putting money back and the economy. how is this going to help the economy? >> the best example of that is that that has been the policy since about 2001, 2002. we have had seven or eight years of this policy. it has not done a lot to stimulate growth. most economists, we use them as a referee for these debates, they say if you give just the top and folks this additional tax relief, a lot of people will put it in their stock account or put it in the bank. they will not spend. if we're going to give $65 billion of targeted tax relief, let's see if we could use it as an investment tax credit, research and development tax credit, getting some of the money on the sidelines back in.

there is not a lot of evidence that extending this tax break will do much to extend the economy. tavis: how is this going to end the year president obama to his progress of base, who he is already in trouble with? >> i want to get out of a left, right battle. and say, how do we get people back to work? 9.6% unemployment. if we are going to be honest, we have to a knowledge that the government has used its tools. the fed or reserve has lowered interest rates about as much as you can. i do not think our republican colleagues are going to go for

more stimulus. the one piece of the economy that is still healthy, large companies are sitting on all of this cash. what can we do to get them spending it? that can go a long way to showing that this president is not anti-business. the private sector is where the jobs are going to come from. that would be healthy for everyone. i have been pleasantly surprised at a number of progressive members of congress have endorsed my idea. this makes sense. if we're going to have some kind of compromise, warner's idea makes sense. then somebody has a better idea that will make more job creation, i am open for business. tavis: you mentioned to the house. john boehner is going to be the man. we know that nancy pelosi is back as the minority leader. that issue has been settled.

what about this notion that republicans were standing on weeks ago that there would be no compromise on these bush era tax cuts? are they starting to back off of that. >> that is yet to be seen. we have seen on a number of these discussions that the folks on the other side keep moving the goalposts. the campaign season is over. the couple of messages came part of the campaign. we have got to get our deficit under control. we have got to create jobs. the american people want to see us actually work together for the good of the country. if be republican leadership says that they want to take down president obama, that is not good policy and it is not good long-term politics either. i think we will check our hat at the door.

we have got to put on an american have right now. how do we stimulate job creation? there are a billion people in china and india that are not waiting for america to get its act together. we need to stimulate our own economy. tavis: speaking of deficit reduction, the deficit commission, in the news over the last few days. they are talking about the fact that they have got to figure out a way to cut discretionary spending. what you are reading out of this commission? >> what the commission has done so far is they have given us stark reality on how big of a whole we are in. this is not going to be solved with a flimsy campaign rhetoric. it is not going to be solved by getting rid of the earmarks. it will take a conversation with

the american people, and what the you want from the federal government and how much are you willing to pay? it is going to take some honest conversation. take one example that will get me in some trouble. we need to understand in an area like social security that 50 years ago, there were eight workers for every one retiree. today, there are two workers for every retiree. we have got to slow the start looking over a 10-15-year period of raising the retirement age. tell somebody that is 25 or 30, chances are that you will not the social security until you're 69, 70, 71. that is an honest approach to some of these issues. i think the american people understand that.

you take the social security from the original signed 65 was set as the retirement age by a guy named bismarck in 1890. some of this stuff is just math. i think the american people are ready to do their share. the political leadership has to do our share. tavis: what is going to happen in the coming days with these bush era tax cuts. >> thank you for having me on your show. tavis: coming up, actor rainn wilson. rainn wilson stars the popular nbc series "the office." he plays one of the more offbeat characters on television. >> i would go with that. tavis: he has been active

raising money for the people of haiti. he is also author of the new book "soulpancake." good to have you on the program. >> good to see you. are you doing okay? tavis: i am doing great. what do you love about being such an offbeat character? >> i evan off the -- am an offbeat and i. i never really fit in. i became a drama geek. found that i was pretty good at it. i found that i could make girls laugh and i could get girls by it being goofy and running into walls. you should give it a try. i made this careerr%)drñ?ñ?ñ?ña

crazy misfit on ball character. i love it. tavis: how cool is that. you think of all of the people in this town that are hoping to one day have their rainn moment. you get a chance not only to be the guy, but to play these characters that are not so far removed from who you really are. what is it like to be in that zone? >> it is a blessing. i just want to become a better and better actor. i just wanted to work. i found this sweet spot of these kinds of characters that are right in my wheel house. i am blessed. tavis: what is it about the "the office"that works and seems to connect to the audience? >> that is a great question.

it is a hard thing to put your finger on. anytime you have a show business creation, it is alchemy. they try to recreate it. why did "france" -- "friends" work? they were not able to recreate that. i think it is about how specific it is. it is not a very broad show. it is about what you put in your mug, how you tie your tie. tavis: for the two or three americans who have not seen "the office" -- >> it is always on an airplane. tavis: how would you describe your character on the show? >> "the office" is a

mockumentary about a paper company. the people are aware of the cameras falling -- following them around. my character is the assistant regional manager dwight schrute. the uber nerd, micro manager tie. he wants control. he is very much into power, a very much into systems. tavis: that was a very good. you did that very nicely. this name, rainn, tell me more. >> my parents were going to name me tavis. they were like, no way, and he will get the crap beat out of him. we will name him rainn.

i had bohemian parents in seattle in the late 1960's living in a houseboat. my dad may novels and made murals. my mother was an actress in seattle theater. she would take her top off and painters of blue. -- paint herself blue. my mother wanted to name me after a famous greek historian. tavis: i bet you could not spell that. >> you win. tavis: how does a kid learn how to spell that? tell me about "soulpancake" the book. >> "soulpancake" the book was inspired by our website.

when i started getting well wanted to do something different and something positive. i wanted to share something that i was passionate about with "the office" fans and people everywhere. that is talking about life. what it is to be a human being. those kinds of conversations happens so rarely these days. when they do, they clear the room. i am not talking about politics. i am talking about, do we have a soul, and do we have free will? growing up, my family were a high -- bahists. we had spiritual ways of thinking. i'd love philosophy and

spirituality. -- i loved philosophy and spirituality. tavis: one of the things i love the bout the web site, -- loved about the website, it allows young people to have these conversations. i was thinking about socrates. the notion that the unexamined life is not worth living. i am trying to figure out whether or not you thought there was an audience that would be interested in being socratic at having these conversations. you look at the world you live in today. there is not overwhelming evidence that something like that would be of interest to people. >> recently, i was thinking about, what unites everybody in humanity?

one of the things that i think unites us all is the phenomenon of heartbreak. everybody has had a heart break. if you have not, it is right around the corner. i knew there is an audience for "soulpancake" because everybody has experienced heartbreak, everybody has experienced death in their family. everybody loves to create. in our culture, the arts are very separate. there are artists and there are people of faith. they are very different. it never used to be that way through human history. and artistic expression is the same as a faith-filled expression. i knew that there were a lot of artists that would like to dig into that intersection. tavis: i have asked you about the terms. the name.

>> i talked about it in the introduction to the book. it had to do with domain names. spirittaco was taken. transcendenceenchilada was gone. we wanted something fun and edgy and a referent. -- the rev. -- irreverant. tavis: you are serious about your work with haiti. where are you with that? >> it happened about the same time i was founding "soulpancake." it was like, all of the sudden, i was a celebrity. here is this weird kid from the suburbs. i became famous for being on the

successful tv show. i started being approached by these charities and causes and political parties and environmental causes. they wanted me to mc things or raise money. i was dumbfounded. before i just say yes to everything, i have to think about what is important to me. what cause in the world is most important to me. what i settled on was education. i got approached by the mona foundation. it is like i found the perfect charity. god was like, here you go. here is the perfect charity. you can get behind this with your heart and soul. they find grass roots charities that are already working. it is not american or european

countries, going into a country and say, this is how we think you should do this. it is a school in the amazon that becomes a college because of the locals. the mona foundation funds those initiatives. they have three or four schools in haiti. me and my wife spent a couple of weeks visiting the schools and the teachers. we hope to go back many times. they gave us a bit of a firsthand taste of what was happening there on the ground and how great these schools were. raising a lot of money for them. hopefully, we will be traveling around the world soon. tavis: now that you have all of this celebrity from the office,

after you leave "the office", what do you want to do with his career? >> i want to be an actor. i just want to be an actor. i do not want to be a spokesman for anything. i do not want to do anything crazy or fancy like that. i just love playing characters and getting paid for it. that is what i want to do until the day that i die. i want to keel over on stage playing king leer at age 99. that is what i want to do. being an actor for me is part of the bigger picture. we talked about the intersection of art and faith and spirituality and philosophy. i am an artist, too. i am a man of faith. i want to find a way to be of service to humanity.

i want to be crucial. being an artist and a humanitarian, i want to play goofy weirdos. tavis: and get paid for it. >> a caveat. do you get paid for doing this show? tavis: this is television. viewers like you. the new book is called "soulpancake" to all life's big questions. thanks for tuning in. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today'show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: i am tavis smiley. stay with us next time.

>> all that i know is that his name is james. he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference, you held them all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, tavis smiley is proud to remove economic -- obstacles to economic empowerment. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from the worst like you. thank you. -- viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] kcet public television]