“I’m worried that 30,000 3 and 4 year old kids won’t get the benefit we know comes from early education and that our students in public universities and colleges will continue to be buried in debt because we don’t stand up and adequately fund their campuses. I’m worried that kids trapped in poverty through no fault of their own will be denied the best route out and up – a better public education. These kids – our future – deserve these wins and it’s up to us to deliver them.”
—-John Walsh
MA Democratic Party Chair
“We Will Lose” via Blue Mass Group
Let's strike down this myth right here and now.
Cancer clinics aren’t turning away patients because of “death panels.” They’re turning away patients because of automatic across-the-board budget cuts that took effect last month — it’s a little something called a “sequester.”
Why is so hard for right-wing media to grasp that the sequester cuts will have harmful, even life-threatening consequences for Americans? Talk about out-of-touch!
Getting Convention Ready: Convention Budget
You’re packed and ready for the con, time to smash the piggy bank! How much should you be bringing to the con?
Food
If you have been to the convention before, you probably know what is in the area and the prices of food. If you haven’t been to the area, use your google-fu to scope out what’s in the area so you can decide where you might be eating and plan accordingly.
When I first started congoing my food budget was roughly $60 dollars. I didn’t stay at the convention overnight, so $20 covered lunch for each day. Anything left over went to my spending budget! Now I stay overnight, but my food isn’t counted in the “con budget” since I pay for food with my debit card.
You can save money by bringing food with you. One year we had a hotel room and my friend brought a cooler full of sandwiches, salads and other foods which was stored in the hotel room. This is a great way to make sure you’re eating healthy, saving money, and not waiting in line at the busy restaurants! Another option is to bring small snacks to eat throughout the day, such as granola bars!
Hotel
If you’re staying overnight at the con you’re probably paying for a hotel room and that’s going to take a bite out of your wallet!
If you are in charge of a hotel group (you booked the room, other people will be paying you their portion) try to get the money ahead of time to avoid any issues at the convention. If you don’t get the money ahead of time, be prepared to cover the entire cost of the hotel room in case something happens and you don’t get your money.
Hotels will usually ask for a deposit, especially if you are paying in cash, to be held in case of damages. The amount requested will depend on the hotel so call ahead to confirm! If you don’t damage the room your deposit will be returned at checkout.
If you aren’t in charge of the room, make sure that you have set aside the amount for the hotel room, and ask to see if the person in charge is also requesting people chip in for the deposit.
There may be other fees for the hotel, so check the hotel’s website before the convention. These fees could be for internet access, use of the pool, or for renting movies.
Getting Home / Emergency
Always have cash set aside as “emergency” money. In case you lose your wallet, keep this money separately.
Emergency money can cover a variety of things: if you lose your wallet, if your ride home leaves without you and you have to find your own way, if you get sick and need to purchase something at the drugstore.
Spending
I suggest calculating what you need for your other expenses first, before deciding on your spending budget. That way if you are on a limited budget, you can make sure you have everything important covered and then use the rest for spending.
To get an idea of how much to bring, have an idea of what you are looking for. If you can make a “shopping list” then you have an idea of how much you will need to purchase it. The internet is a great way to get price ranges! For example if my shopping list is a tiger kigurumi (approx.$65) and a couple plushies ($15-30 each) then I would want to bring at least $125 to cover those, but probably more in case something else catches my eye.
If you don’t have a shopping list, bring the amount of money you feel okay spending in the dealers room.
Debit + Credit
Debit and credit cards are great for things like emergency funds, hotel and food money, because they generally are accepted outside of the convention.
At the convention, few (if any) vendors have machines to accept payment from cards and the con itself might not accept electronic payment for tickets and other paid events. ATMs also empty very fast, even on the first day of the convention, so don’t rely on ATMs to be a source of backup cash!
Bring enough cash to cover what you want from the con itself, and use the debit/credit card to cover stuff outside of the con.
From: http://thriftstorewarfare.tumblr.com/
As someone who has worked for a vendor in the past, PLEASE PAY IN CASH. Many card systems used at the con rely on wifi or phone signals and oftentimes these are faulty at the con. To keep things moving smoothly, pay in cash.
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» Getting Convention Ready: Rewearing a Costume Multiple Times
» Getting Convention Ready: Last Minute Cosplay Details
» Getting Convention Ready: Weapons Check
Obama seeks to cap retirement accounts so that no individual saves "more than is needed"
President Obama wants to make sure that people don’t save “more than is needed,” and his budget proposal includes steps that would limit the amount of money individuals can have in their retirement accounts.
from Bloomberg:
President Barack Obama’s budget proposal would cap multimillion-dollar tax-favored retirement accounts like the one held by Mitt Romney, his Republican rival in 2012.
Obama’s budget plan, to be unveiled April 10, would prohibit taxpayers from accumulating more than $3 million in an individual retirement account. That proposal would generate $9 billion in revenue for the Treasury over the next decade, according to a White House statement released today.
“Under current rules, some wealthy individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving,” the statement said.
My first thought when I read this headline was to shudder at how eerily similar the proposal sounds to the institutionalized theft that just happened in Cyprus where bank accounts over $130,000 had 40% their deposits simply confiscated. Only two weeks ago, I warned that this would find its way here eventually. I didn’t expect it to be so soon.
This is thinly veiled Marxism sold as “revenue generation,” and anyone who opposes the measure will be accused of not wanting a “balanced approach” to reduce the deficit.
Naturally, the rule wouldn’t apply to President Obama himself, whose retirement will be funded by the taxpayer and include tens of millions of dollars in benefits. Regardless, Obama thinks he’s qualified to decide how much is “too much” for the rest of the country.
10 things you need to know about Rand Paul’s FY 2014 budget
redalertpolitics.com1. Eliminates the Department of Commerce
2. Requires that all regulations with an economic impact of more than $100 million be approved by an up-or-down Congressional vote in order to give Congress more authority over regulatory agencies.
3. It would lead to a $17 billion surplus in fiscal year 2018
4. Approves the Keystone XL pipeline
5. Gives all seniors the same health care plan as members of Congress.
6. Eliminates the Department of Education, but preserves Pell grants
7. Freezes foreign aid spending at $5 billion per year
8. Privatizes the TSA.
9. Eliminates the Department of Energy
10. Repeals Obamacare
