House Speaker John Boehner takes the gavel from Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Jan. 6 at the start of the 114th Congress. Mark Wilson/Getty hide caption

Congress tries every year to plug a loophole that would otherwise result in a 21 percent cut in Medicare doctors' pay. But it doesn't exactly always tighten its belt in the process. Key Wilde/Getty Images hide caption

Customers browse the pot products at Cannabis City in Seattle. In Washington, the 2012 initiative to legalize pot was sold as a way to decrease expenses for local governments. Elaine Thompson/AP hide caption

Italian military police officers stand in front of anti-Olympics demonstrators in February 2006 in Turin, Italy, on the eve of the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Games. Paco Serinelli/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Washington, D.C., Councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry was famously re-elected after going to jail for crack cocaine possession, but started out as a champion for the city's disenfranchised. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

The amount of money spent on Capitol Hill is way more than small change — but the impact of that money is a little murky. Here, the U.S. Capitol is reflected in a fountain full of coins on Election Day this year. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

People walk arm-in-arm Thursday past a memorial for victims outside a school following a deadly shooting there nearly a week earlier in Marysville, Wash. Elaine Thompson/AP hide caption

Rian, 26, tells the rappers about the low-cost health plan she bought on the exchange in this TV ad. waplanfinder/YouTube hide caption

People at a Denver party early this month celebrate the recognition of an amendment to the Colorado constitution legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Brennan Linsley/AP hide caption

Flowers bloom at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., though the same can't be said of bipartisanship. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption