Kansas' senate just voted 25-13 to expand medicaid. Brownback will obviously veto, but it might be overruled. They were 3 votes short of veto-proof in the house and 1 vote shy in the senate.

The supreme court ruling striking down the part of the ACA that forced states to do certain things or lose medicaid funding was definitely unexpected. Also unexpected was the decision of many republican governors to screw their own residents and refuse to set up exchanges just so that they could stick it to the democrats.

It's an apartment so I'd imagine it's a lot less maintenance than a 1.5 million mansion somewhere.

$1.5M is really more of a manse.

yeah straight up lol @ Sklansky acting like people not mentioning the possibilities is a bad thing when those possibilities only happen if states decided to refuse things that made their constituents better off. Like it's so insane as to defy belief.

Yes, David, you weren't informed about what would happen in the event that a bunch of politicians decided they cared more about their job than their constituents. What a crime! Dems just assumed that the GOP would get on board with something that helped people out.

You can call it "dishonestly not mentioning them," while the rest of us call it "assuming the GOP had common sense"

Not to mention it was unintentional because of essentially poor wording in the language.

And let's be clear. ObamaCare would have worked much better if Republicans hadn't actively sabotaged it. If they had just accepted a little health care for their own citizens.

By the way, the day that ObamaCare became net favorable with the public according to some polls? January 19, 2017.

Looks like around $1.1 million, judging by the health care fiasco.

Of course, people don't vote for the GOP because of economics or political beliefs. It is solely identity politics that get GOP voters to the polls. They need their big government to force safe spaces for white racists on the rest of us.

+1

$18000 on vacations annually and $18000 on "charity" is a bit over the top. $450/wk for food is ridiculous.

Could cut down on the ****ing piano and violin lessons, too.

I took my gf and her daughter to Europe for 2 weeks in 2010 when the dollar sucked. Total cost somewhere between $15k and $20k.

Binked $11k in a PS tourney a few days after getting back or I'd still be digging out of that hole.

Spending mad money on children's music lessons is the most reasonable part of that budget, tbh.

I think that budget is getting a lot of unreasonable hate. I went back to the original blog and read the post it came from. It was not clear, but what I think happened is that this couple contacted the blogger for some financial advice and he asked them if he could share their numbers and write a post about it. And they allowed him to do it. He then goes on to post some opinions/justifications about their spending that may or may not have been shared by those whose budget it was.

Once again, even from the original blog post it's not exactly clear how or why this specific family's budget was the subject of the post, but the above is the most likely explanation, in my opinion.

It's very different from that Chicago dude openly lamenting his six family income

It's like Hobbes said, it's totally possible to realize intellectually that you're rich and well off, even if you may not actually feel that way. It's human nature to feel like you don't have enough and need more. In fact feeling that way, probably leads to more saving and responsible financial behavior in general (although perhaps not in this specific case).

I think that this feeling of not having enough is only worthy of criticism if these people were expecting some sort of sympathy for their supposedly dire situation. If that were the case, then sure flame on. But I don't think that's the case here.

Did you not fly coach? That is like $1000+/day...

3 plane tickets from LA -> Naples -> Dublin -> LA ~ $5000

Hotel rooms for 12 nights (suites, or we got 2 rooms in Rome) ~ $250/night = $3000

Food (free breakfast, snacks, cheap-ish lunch, nice dinner w/drinks) ~ $300/day = $3600

Late nights with more drinking - tack on another $200.

Rental car in Ireland ~ $600

Taxis probably ran $100/day except for when we had the car rented

Cel phones with chips $200 or so

Hired a driver from Naples to Positano and a side trip to Pompeii on the way back - $300 or so

Also tack on all the exchange rate ****ery and overseas credit card/withdrawal fees.

You get the idea. Felt like I'd drop $100 just walking out the door of the hotel. Dollar was worth like .88 Euro at the time. It was brutal.

It didn't help that in Italy we were traveling with a friend who liked to live elegantly. We plop down at some little outdoor cafe in Capri - a couple mimosas, some juice and a fruit salad thing - boom $100.

<pvn batsignal>
I had to cash out part of my IRA to pay for this trip. You have 60 days to pay it back w/o penalty or taxes. Luckily the tourney bink helped me pay a big chunk of it back. (God is good) But I think I was still $6k short or something. Which is like $35k less when I retire - with penalties and all.
</pvn batsignal>

Still I don't regret it. I did it for the kid and she had a great experience.

What in the holy ****? Suzzer's last post looks like this to me:

$300/day (THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS PER DAY) on food for two people and a little girl, and you're bragging about "free breakfast"?! And that's not even including drinks? JFC.

lol @ "friend who liked to live elegantly." THAT'S YOU, BRO!

Suzzer,

My GF and I spent 3 months travelling around the US. All of the northeast (boston, NY, philly, DC, Chicago etc) a train to SF and all the southwest (route 1, utah national parks, grand canyon twice, vegas etc plus a trip to yellowstone) and spent £3-4k each including flights. Fly economy + air bnb = cheap times.

What was your favorite spot ?

Suzzer, you had me until you spent $300/day on food and $100/day on taxis.

favourite city - Chicago
best travel moment - tie between route 1 from SF to LA and travelling through the rockies by train
worst travel moment - the 14 hour drive (seriously) that should have been 7 between niagara falls and washington DC on the monday after the july 4th weekend (dumb scheduling on my part)
must see - bryce, zion, yosemite, and yellowstone
best fast food - in and out burger
best slow food - mortons steakhouse steak in chicago
friendliest host - waterford ct
weirdest host - tie between 2 hippy types one in Ithaca ny who listed waterfalls as a hobby and one in oakland who went to her room and got high as **** (from the smell of it) within 10 mins of us arriving and unpacking and wasn't seen again.
favourtie activity - white water rafting the american river
Best single moment - helicoptering to the bottom of the grand canyon, the moment the ground dropped away. Insane.
worst single moment - thinking our uninsured rental car had been stolen in boston when it had been towed thanks to some byzantine street sweeping rules.

Took another look at the $500k chart, which is obv lol, but one area that got laughed at that is actually quite reasonable is children's lessons.

They list sports, piano, violin, and academics, which is at least 4 activities, for 2 kids for $12k total/yr. That's $6k/yr for each kid and $500/month, $125/month/activity. Try shopping for tutoring, piano, or violin lessons for $125/month. That's at least reasonable, and most likely very cheap, for some of those lessons.

Sure, one can say, just cut down on piano and violin lessons, but that's like saying just cut down on the $1.5 mil house. The point is that the #'s are reasonable, if not cheap, there.

And why am I writing all this about some minor detail? I wish I could find good piano/violin/tutoring lessons for $125/month!

so the kids who need $20k of childcare per year are advanced enough to swallow up $6k apiece worth of music lessons?

Those are at least life-enriching expenses. I'd cut back on the vacations, clothes, fancy cars, and get cheaper housing well before cutting music and sports lessons. And like $125/month/activity is pricy but by no means ridiculous.

You did America pretty darn well, imo. ****, there are tons of Americans who haven't experienced America this well.