The Martha Stewart Show website had this to say about his recent appearance on her show, "His poster, "Death and Taxes," illustrates the president's budget request for 2009. The budget is debated, amended, and approved by Congress, ideally by October 1, to begin the fiscal year. (The budget fluctuates yearly according to the wishes of the president and the power of Congress.) Although all of the information contained in the poster is available at the Office of Management and Budget at whitehouse.gov, it is thousands of pages long and uses confusing terminology. Thus, Jess wanted to create something that was easier, allowing people to easily compare and contrast information, and come to some realizations. For example, although it may sound wonderful that the National Cancer Institute will get $4.8 billion next year, it's only about half of what the Missile Defense Program is getting. So cancer, which is the No. 1 killer in the U.S., is trumped by the Administration's desire to protect us from rogue missiles."
You can get a peek at the ultra-nifty poster here.
You may notice that the $189 billion Defense Department budget was increased 9%. The Safe and Drug Free schools programs were decreased 59%, and the Historically Black Colleges fund was decreased 26%. The $29 billion National Institutes of Health budget (y'know the ones that cure cancer and AIDS) was not increased. The Department of Health is decreased by 2%. The Department of Education (education for disabled kids and colleges and universities) was not increased. IRS enforcement was increased 6%. At one time, the US had no debt. Lately, the national debt has continued to increase an average of $1.67 billion per day since September 29, 2006. Our national debt is now up to $10.15 trillion, an 8 percent increase from last year. Congresspeople earn $200,000 per year. Happy April 15th!
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