Death and Taxes 2014: US Federal Budget Infographic

I received an email today from the good folks over at Visual.ly. One of the charts they sent, really an infographic, is one depicting the United States Federal Budget as proposed by President Obama. There has been a good bit of controversy on the 2014 budget. Not just because of the content of the budget but because of how late it was.

Obama presented his first budget on May 11, 2009, a month and two days longer than President George W. Bush’s budget was released during his first year in office. However, every year after that his budget was delivered in February, just like George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. This year, on the other hand, Obama was two months late. Not the end of the world but this was the latest submission by an incumbent president as far as I could go back, 1923. Continue reading

And The Crowd Yells, “Let Him Die”

This comes to us care of Talking Points Memo and Think Progress‘s liveblog of the latest GOP presidential debate, the second to feature Rick Perry. This particular moment hits close to home for me. You might remember my attempts to pay for and get health insurance and where that got me.

In this moment, it is asked whether someone who is uninsured should be allowed to die or if the government should pick up where his lack of insurance and his bank account left off. The reaction from the Tea Party crowd is surprising, even for them. Below is the incident in question.

Ron Paul the doctor says a 30-year-old who has an accident and needs intensive health care should’ve planned ahead and is responsible for himself. When Blitzer asks if society should let that young man die, some in the crowd shout in approval. Tea Party audience members heard yelling: “Yeah!” “Let him die!”

I actually sort of like Ron Paul. I think his ideas are kind of crazy and his loathing of government a bit ironic but at least he has some ideas. This is more of a critique of the audience than Ron Paul though he sure didn’t challenge them.

And of course, Blitzer should have proposed the question again with someone like me who tried to get insurance, even paid for it for months and then was told he was uninsurable. What if I were the one in the hospital for six months? A twenty-something with all intentions of not getting a free ride.

Now, discuss!

UPDATE: Looks like Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson was right over a year ago when he said the Republican healthcare plan was, “Don’t get sick and if you do get sick, die quickly.” Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration and the hypothetical situation isn’t specific enough but it sure doesn’t help the argument for the Tea Party reaction last night.

Ok, so now discuss.

For All My Kiwis

I’m not really sure how many New Zealand readers I have here.  Actually, I do know. It’s 91.

Nevertheless, PayPerPost wanted me to spread the word about this new service, KiwiSelect.  They help make this blog possible by sponsoring it through advertisements on the blog.

Interested in saving money, I went to the site kiwisaver and played around with it a bit.

KiwiSelect

KiwiSelect

The service is beautiful to play around with and allows you to easily calculate how much money you can save by retirement based on your age and “attitude”.  The site allows you to choose an investment risk profile, choose a fund manager, and then to apply online for the best fund choice and pretty much finishes up the whole deal.

If the service is as easy to fully implement as it seems, I say it’s a slam dunk.  Do wish there was something out here, in the United States, that worked similarly.  So far I don’t know of any.  But a quick check with this site had me with $406,000 by retirement age!  That’s not too shabby.

Plus, this whole deal is government backed, to me that’s a good thing, while at the same time it’s free and independently owned.  What more could you ask for?  Plus, whoever did their site certainly had an eye for style.

We need people to save more and prepare for the economies we are in today.  KiwiSelect is a move in the right direction.

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Sally Kern – Hate-monger

I’m sure by now you have all read about Sally Kern’s hate speech against homosexuals and followers of Islam.  Here is a recording of the speech, a transcript c/o the BBC follows.

I cannot believe that she is getting away with this. It’s just incredible. Listen and then go to the Human Rights Campaign site to see what you can do.

[flv:Sally-Kern.flv 425 325]

Full transcript of a speech by Sally Kern on the “gay agenda” with a backhanded slap at Islam

The homosexual agenda [Loud snap] is destroying this nation. OK? It’s just a fact. [Volume increases] Not everybody’s lifestyle is equal, just like not all religions are equal.

You know, the very fact that I’m talking to you like this here today, puts me in jeopardy. OK? Uh and I’m not anti, I’m not gay-bashing, but according to God’s word that is not the right kind of lifestyle, it has deadly consequences for those people involved in it, they have more suicides, uh and they’re more discouraged, there’s more illness, their uh lifespans are shorter, you know?

It’s, it’s, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation.

‘Matter of fact, studies show, that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades.

So it’s the death knell of this country.

I honestly think it’s the biggest threat even, that our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat. OK?

Because what’s happening now, they’re going after er uh in schools – two year-olds!

You know why they’re trying to get early childhood education? They want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them! I taught school for close to twenty years and we’re not teaching facts and knowledge anymore folks, we’re teaching indoctrination. OK?

And they’re going after our young children, as young as two years of age, to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is the acceptable lifestyle.

You know, gays are infiltrating city councils.

Do you know? Eureka Springs [Arkansas], anybody been there, for the [Great] Passion Play? [A “Creation Truth” production] OK, have you heard that the city council of Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays? OK?

There are some others. Uh, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Tacoma, Md.; Kensington, Md.; in Vermont, Oregon, West Palm Beach, Fla. and a lot of other places in Florida.

What’s happening? And they are winning elections. One of the things I deal with in our legislature, I tried to introduce a bill last year, that would notify parents, uh schools had to let parents know what clubs their students were involved in.

And the reason I did that bill, primarily, was this, we had the Gay-Straight Alliance coming into our schools.

Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined, their parents don’t know about it. So I introduced a bill that said you have to notify all clubs, and things. And one of my colleagues said, “Well, you know we don’t have a gay problem in my community, so that’s why I voted against that bill.”

Well you know what? To me that is so dumb. If you’ve got cancer or something in your little toe, do you say, Well you know I’m just gonna forget about it, ’cause the rest of you’s fine?

It spreads! OK?

And this, this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading and it will destroy uh our young people, it will destroy this nation.