Last November a document got leaked out, which outlined a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) being authored by the Obama administration. The internet part of this is really infuriating: * That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube […]
Joe Biden’s mother has passed away: Catherine Eugenia ‘Jean’ Finnegan Biden, 92, “was the center of our family and taught all of her children that family is to be treasured, loyalty is paramount and faith will guide you through the tough times,” Biden said in a statement. I still remember his mom walking out at […]
This is a really, really, REALLY bad idea: To the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat. Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring […]
Oh this is just priceless: Fox News’ Brit Hume gave Tiger Woods some personal advice Sunday morning, telling the scandal-plagued (and Buddhist) golfer to ‘turn to Christianity’ to make a full recovery. On “Fox News Sunday,” Hume — the former leader of Fox News’ political reporting and host of “Special Report” who now serves as […]
I’m sure we’ll all be breaking open our wallets soon: Evangelical pastor Rick Warren appealed to parishioners at his California megachurch Wednesday to help fill a $900,000 deficit by the first of the year. Warren made the appeal in a letter posted on the Saddleback Church Web site. It begins “Dear Saddleback Family, THIS IS […]
I am going to stick with 1980 for my discussion on the federal poverty level because in this post it also works to exemplify the problems. In 1980 families didn’t have as many costs. Two costs are internet and cable. Some might argue that those are luxury items, but when you are talking about a […]
I want to take a post Marcy Wheeler did yesterday and change it to reflect my revised FPL I did in the previous post. 301% of Poverty Level: $66,370 Federal Taxes (estimate from this page, includes FICA): $8,628 (13% of income) State Taxes (using MI rates on $30,000 of income): $1,305 (2% of income) Food […]
One thing I have been having trouble finding is how the federal poverty level is actually adjusted every year. Here is how Health and Human Services describes the process: To calculate the 2009 poverty guidelines, do you use a projection of what the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) will be for 2009? No. ASPE does not […]
I figured I would plug in some real world numbers as they would be today if the new health care legislation was fully intact. This is something I haven’t seen during the whole debate and I want to take it from the angle of a single person earning 150% of the FPL. Currently the FPL […]