VIDEO: Matt Damon Disgusted By Debt Deal

In Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon played a tough-talking Bostonian with a Harvard caliber mind. In real life, things don't look that different. Present as a speaker and supporter for the Save Our Schools March, Damon schooled a reporter and cameraman who insinuated that teachers have no incentive to perform better. In another interview, the Harvard-educated Damon commented on the debt deal and on the American political landscape in general.

"I'm so disgusted," he told a reporter about the negotiations that have dissatisfied progressives. "I mean, no, I don't know what you do in the face of that kind of intransigence," Damon said, referring to what he sees as stubbornness on the part of the Republican majority in the House. Damon added a touch of sympathy for Barack Obama: "My heart does go out to the President. He is dealing with a lot."

Damon said he would have liked to have seen, rather than spending cuts, a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans. "The wealthy are paying less than they paid at any time else, certainly in my lifetime," Damon said. "It's criminal that so little is asked of people who are getting so much. I don't mind paying more. I really don't mind paying more taxes. I'd rather pay for taxes than cut 'Reading is Fundamental' or Head Start or some of these programs that are really helping kids. This is the greatest country in the world; is it really that much worse if you pay 6% more in taxes? Give me a break. Look at what you get for it: you get to be American."

Damon also slammed the notion, often argued by Republicans, that tax breaks for the wealthy "trickle down" and create jobs for poorer Americans. "I didn't go start a small business with my tax break, and I don't know anyone else who did. No, everybody's socking their money away," he said. "I was against those tax cuts. I thought they were ridiculous. So little is asked of the upper class anyway. I mean, what percent of them or their kids are fighting in any of these wars? What percent of their day is occupied by the fact that there are men and women in positions over the world, risking their lives. If you walk down 5th Avenue, there's no sense of shared sacrifice."

Watch the video here: