More topic jumping this week. Is Chris more knowledgeable than your everyday, average Walmart shopper? We talk about a guy who had the hiccups for 68 YEARS. We took notes the night we took a gummy. Plus, skydiving and bungee jumping, expiration dates, taxes, and Jeff gives a couple of streaming recommendations.
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More topic jumping this week. Is Chris more knowledgeable than your everyday, average Walmart shopper? We talk about a guy who had the hiccups for 68 YEARS. We took notes the night we took a gummy. Plus, skydiving and bungee jumping, expiration dates, taxes, and Jeff gives a couple of streaming recommendations.
1. Topics
2. Additional Resources
3. Merchandise/Support the Show
4. Contact Us/Follow Us/Rate/Subscribe
New episodes every week!
Listen, rate, follow, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!
Follow us:
5. Credits
This week, more gummy effects, nightmare hiccups, and where do our tax dollars go? Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody. Welcome to Subpar Talks where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff.
Chris:And I'm Chris.
Jeff:Thank you again for joining us, and my God, if you don't know what's coming at this point, then what's happening? Where have you been? It is our standard disclaimer, listener discretion is advised. We like to curse from time to time, sometimes a lot. And depending on the episode, we will touch on some mature subject matter and we inject our humor into a lot of this stuff. So if that doesn't set well with you, then maybe this is not your cup of tea. But for everybody else, settle in, put your feet up, turn the volume up, whatever you need to do, because here we go with this week's topics. OK. So, I always refer to the everyday average American.
Chris:Yeah.
Jeff:But I typically say in my classes, the everyday average Walmart shopper, because that's who we're dealing with. You know, it's like this, this is a, these are Americans, you know, everyday average people. So as an extra credit project, I said they had to go to Walmart and interview a person on video and ask them 10 questions that I came up with.
Chris:That's awesome.
Jeff:I didn't come up with them. They're from the, uh, US Citizenship test.
Chris:I'm sure those results are frightening.
Jeff:Well, yeah, some of them were pretty bad. There were a couple that, that I saw that I was kind of impressed. And one of the ones I was impressed with, she's one of my former students.
Chris:Oh, really?
Jeff:Yeah, because right when the video started I was like, I recognize her, and sure enough, yeah.
Chris:That's awesome.
Jeff:Yeah. OK, so we're gonna see how you, do you wanna take this? You wanna see?
Chris:Sure. Let's go.
Jeff:See if you're head and shoulders above your everyday average Walmart shopper.
Chris:I would certainly hope so.
Jeff:All right. What are the first three words of the preamble to the Constitution? We the people. Very good. What are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution called Bill of Rights? Name? Three. Rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Uh, freedom of speech, religion, freedom of the Press. Very good. What are the three branches of our government? Executive legislative judicial who makes laws in the United States Legislative Congress. Yeah. Uh, what is the highest court in the United States Supreme Court, who is the president of the us? Of the current President Biden. I was waiting for like president of the Senate or something like the actual president who is the vice president. Dammit. I know her name. Um, shit, why can't I think of her name right now? I don't know because I put you on the spot. Yeah. Well, that is embarrassing cuz I could always spout that off under Yeah. A normal day. Right. And just a regular conversation. You know, it, it's Kamala Harris. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Uh, who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Thomas Jefferson. Yeah. Uh, what countries did the US fight in World War II Countries? Germany, Russia. Yeah. Nope. Russia was an ally. Uh, Russia was an
Chris:ally. Mm-hmm. What happened to them?
Jeff:Well, they didn't like fascism anymore than we did, so we teamed up. So Germany
Chris:and Japan, that's all I'm thinking of. Yeah. And Italy. OK. Yeah.
Jeff:Mussolini. Yeah. Uh, what are the two major political parties in the us, Democrat and Republican? Yeah. So yeah, you did better. You did much better than your everyday average Walmart shopper, for sure. That's good. And
Chris:the VP shouldn't have thrown me. Well, it's a good thing you didn't ask me who the president of the Senate was like. I thought you were gonna ask, well,
Jeff:do I know that the president of the Senate, I don't know, is there a title? Is that an actual thing? I don't know.
Chris:Yeah, it's the Vice President. Oh,
Jeff:that's right. He's designated by he or she. Designated by the Constitution as the president of the Senate. That's right.
Chris:Yeah. So I would've failed that question too. Two birds with one stone.
Jeff:What do you do when you get the hiccups? You know, I
Chris:don't understand why the hiccup seemed to be a really big problem as a kid, and it's just not much of a problem for me as an adult. What's really weird is I might get a random hiccup and that's it, which I used to think was really weird for other people. Right. And it doesn't happen to me very much, but I guess if I would really get the hiccups, I would take a drink or and or hold my breath. Yeah. One of those is probably gonna take care
Jeff:of it. Right. So the reason I'm asking is because, um, I saw this on, I think on my Twitter feed, but Bo Jackson, the athlete, played baseball, football, um, back in the eighties and well, he had a, a career ending injury in like 1991, I think, but he's had the hiccups since July. No. Yeah, and he was on some talk show and he was explaining how the doc, he, he's been the doctor after doctor trying to figure out what the problem is. They can't figure out, the latest was he was gonna have some medical procedure to see if they remove his diaphragm. Stop it. Yeah. Just rip it right out. So have you ever heard of people. Having the hiccups for like months or years. Have you ever heard of this? I
Chris:don't think I have.
Jeff:I heard about it a long time ago. I remember seeing like on, uh, I don't know, it was like on some, it was a show like 60 minutes. I don't think it was 60 minutes, but it was something like that. This girl had had the hiccups for years and I looked into this. Let's talk about a guy named Charles Osborne. And by the way, this wood scared the, the shit outta me. And ever since I heard that story about that girl mm-hmm. When I get the hiccups, I think, oh, be it. Please go away. Yeah, this could be it.
Chris:I don't understand. How can
Jeff:you live through that? I don't know. So here we go. Charles Osborne. He was born in, uh, 1893. He had an accident on June 13th, 1922, and he hiccuped nonstop, fuck me. For 68 years. They finally went away in 1990, a few months before he died.
Chris:That's insane. How seriously, how could you go on.
Jeff:I don't know, Jerry, how can I go up? I don't know. You
Chris:know, there were some people after Covid that had tinnitus that was Yes. Just continuing. And I heard of people killing themselves from that. Just, well, they couldn't
Jeff:live with it. I, I know it. I, I've thought about that too. People have persistent ringing in their ears. God, that'd be terrible. Yes. So this Charles Osborne, he was being interviewed by People Magazine in 1982. Uh, he said I was hanging this, so this happened in 1922. I was hanging a 350 pound hog for butchering who among us hasn't done that. He said, I picked it up and then I fell down. I felt nothing. But the doctor said later that I busted a blood vessel the size of a pen in my brain. So that was the diagnosis back in 1922. I don't know how much stock I put into that. On average, he experienced 20 to 40 involuntarily diaphragm spasms per minute. In total, he hiccuped and estimated 430 million times before his death in May, 1991. At age 97. Oh
Chris:shit. Like, OK. Just imagine for a second. Never mind having the hiccups for that many years. Yeah. But imagine your reaction when they stop was like, wouldn't you think I'm dead? This is it.
Jeff:This is it. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I, they have no explanation for what happened. They have theories and they don't know why they just stopped on their own. Um, said he traveled long. This is from Smithsonian Magazine, by the way. Said he traveled long distances to visit an array of doctors. None could find a cure. There was a doctor at the Mayo Clinic who managed to stop the hiccups by placing him on carbon monoxide and oxygen, but the treatment had a literally fatal flaw, I would say. So, yeah. I guess that'll stop the hiccups though. Like if you're looking for a cure, we can
Chris:do this, but not for very long.
Jeff:So. There's another doctor at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. His theory is that it was a rib injury that did it. The lower ribs are attached to the diaphragm, which is the muscle between the chest and belly that contracts to create the hiccups. A damaged diaphragm may have been responsible for the endless hiccuping. Another possibility is he hit his head and had a stroke, but damn. Wow.
Chris:Seriously. I just can't imagine living through that.
Jeff:I can't either. OK. So most of the time, about of the hiccups triggered by actions such as drinking, too much alcohol or soda, eating too much, getting excited or swallowing air when chewing gum lasts just a few minutes and is more inconvenient than medically concerning. But some hiccups continue for more than 48 hours, at which point they're considered chronic or persistent. In rare cases like Osborne's hiccups can last more than a month becoming intractable. Jesus Christ. At what point would you get worried? I, I think I'd
Chris:be worried after about an hour.
Jeff:Yeah. I think by that point I'd be freaking out. Yeah. God almighty. That's terrible. Per Web MD intractable hiccups affect one in 100,000 people and can result in severe exhaustion and weight loss. The causes of long lasting hiccups are wide ranging, and in some cases difficult to pinpoint. They include nerve damage, central nervous system disorders. Well, I gotta have a central nervous system, alcoholism, diabetes, undergoing anesthesia and cancer. Damn, that's horrible. Wait. You can get cancer? No. If you have cancer, it can cause the persistent or chronic hiccups. OK.
Chris:So there was a case on Grey's Anatomy and Yes, I know it was Grey's Anatomy, but mm-hmm. You know, they do actually. Cover a lot of cases on Grey's Anatomy that are real cases
Jeff:kind. Law and Order would do about. Yeah.
Chris:I mean, they just happened to make a show out of it. Mm-hmm. But there was a lady on there who came in with persistent hiccups and she died and I don't remember what the, the cause of it was. What, what they said she actually died of if, yeah. If the hiccups were a symptom of. Or if the hiccups themselves ultimately cause the death through, I don't know, because of what it's doing to your diaphragm or God. But anyway, I just can't imagine that
Jeff:I can't either. But when I, when I get the hiccups, I like, I'm getting rid of'em. I ha I don't like'em. I hate'em. I'm getting rid of them. Yeah. My wife and kids though, they'll just let it run its course. And it drives me insane cuz they'll just sit there and convulse over and over. See, that's not normal. No, it's not like, do something, get rid of him. But anyway, he does, uh, this Charles Osborne holds the Guinness Booker World Records. That probably goes without saying for I guess so longest hiccups, hiccup episode or whatever the hell we call it. Damn.
Chris:Unbelievable.
Jeff:OK, so we mentioned, or you mentioned in the previous episode how we, uh, had taken the gummies. We were, this is when we took a whole one. You said you took a quarter one and you mellowed out and all that. Well, when we got together in Dallas, we took a whole one. Yes. And it came on fast and strong and all that. Do you remember, we haven't really talked about this since. Do you remember taking notes about what we were talking about because we knew we wouldn't remember.
Chris:I do. I can't even believe I had the wherewithal to take the notes.
Jeff:Yeah, that was a really good idea.
Chris:I do remember that. I got to a point that I couldn't take notes though. I was saying a lot. I had a lot to say and I knew when I was saying it, it didn't make sense and there was no way that I could have documented it. It would've been awesome if we could have recorded it.
Jeff:Oh, that would've been great. That would've been gold. Gold. Chris.
Chris:Gold. Gold.
Jeff:Do you remember your persistent eye switch?
Chris:I do. I was very concerned about that. I also remember when I asked you if my eyes looked right. And you thought I asked if my eyes looked red? Yeah. So you looked at'em and you said, not really. Not really. I was really worried about that. If my eyes do, my eyes look right. Not really. That was during the twitching. So yeah, I was very concerned
Jeff:for myself. Yeah. See, I don't know what that was. Why was your eye twitching? Was it all connected to the gummies? No,
Chris:I was, I was pretty sure it was twitching, but I can't be a hundred percent sure that that wasn't in my head. Because I never asked you to verify if it was twitching.
Jeff:It was an unverified twitch.
Chris:Right. Would you have been able to verify
Jeff:if it was Twitch, right? Yeah. In my present condition at the time. I don't know. Everything's twitching. Yeah, the room's twitching. What are you talking about?
Chris:Yeah. Well, I was, I was pretty well resigned. I, you know, I needed to go to the bathroom. And I was pretty well resigned that if I went while I was sitting in my chair, well, that's just the way it was gonna be. I mean, what am I supposed to do about it?
Jeff:So we've talked about this before, but it's so weird how alcohol versus t h c, that stuff, whatever the hell we took, how it inhibits you, but in very different ways, very different. Like, and, and we, and I, I know we talked about this cuz I had this in my notes from that night, how you and I have talked about how we are, I don't know how, I mean there are different degrees here, but we're basically introverts, right? But if we have a little bit of alcohol in us, then I feel like I'm not, not necessarily an extrovert, but. I can at least function. Right. Make small people. Yeah. Less inhibited. Yes, but you give me a gummy. Holy hell, no, I can't. I can't keep it together. No. Like you can at least function a little bit when you've had a couple of drinks in you, but it's so weird how it's just different that way. Well,
Chris:we were also just laughing uncontrollably, like really laughing and. I'm pretty sure that what we were laughing at wasn't funny, but it was funny that it wasn't funny that we just kept going. Right. And I, and that was so, you know, I've only had a gummy a handful of times. Yeah. I mean, I could probably count it on one hand and that's the first time that I actually had a paranoid feeling. And the paranoia, yeah. Was. What is everybody else around us thinking when they see us? Yeah. It's not like a paranoia of, oh, we're doing something wrong. We're gonna get in trouble, whatever. But how ridiculous do I look? What is everybody else thinking when they're looking at me? Are we standing out the way we think? We're standing out? But then when I looked at everybody, nobody was looking at us. Right. Yeah. And then I think, well, are they not looking at us because they're afraid to make eye contact,
Jeff:right. Like, what's gonna happen? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I have, uh, something else in our notes, and I don't remember what we said about it at the time, but would you rather go skydiving or bungee jumping? I'd have to be
Chris:skydiving, but I, I have. So first of all, I have such a fear of heights that I really can't imagine doing either, but I have heard people say that have gone skydiving, that at that height you're so high that you don't register at the same, you know, because you're up so high, your depth perception is different. Everything. I have no problem flying in a plane. From a height standpoint. Mm-hmm. But if I'm in a tall building and I go right up to a window and look down, yeah, it can kind of freak me out. I like it. I like to look out like that, but it can kind of freak me out. I think it'd be the same thing with bungee jumping. There's no way that I could be up on top of whatever and just jump off like I see what I'm otherwise gonna hit.
Jeff:I, I think I'm the same way. Like it would be a lot harder to take the jump off whatever you're, whatever you're jumping off of with bungee jumping versus just stepping out of an airplane. Yeah. But man, I, both of them freak me out just thinking about it. Yeah.
Chris:I still, that doesn't mean I can imagine jumping out of the plane either. I do have a little bit more. Curiosity about that, I guess is the right word. Uh, an interest and a curiosity, but it's not so much that I say, yeah, next weekend, that's what I'm gonna
Jeff:do. And I do like the fact that when you go, you're attached to somebody, right? They don't just let you do it on your own. Right. So even if I passed out or whatever, I'm gonna be OK. There's
some,
Chris:most likely somebody else can, can be awake to pull the rip cord.
Jeff:Right. So there's a price for everything. Yeah. How much would you want to bungee jump? Oh my gosh.
Chris:See? I'm not really sure that I could live through it. I think I could have a heart attack or a stroke or something like that. So then what's the money worth? Nothing. I don't know that there's a price. I, I could imagine that. See that, that's a great question because it puts it in perspective. I could imagine an amount of money and I don't know what it would be. But I could imagine an amount of money that that would say, yeah, I might go skydiving, but I really can't imagine that for bungee jumping, cuz I'd think there is no way that I could be standing on top of that platform and go, this money that I'm gonna get when it's done is gonna make it worth stepping off of that platform.
Jeff:God, yeah. That just freaks me out, man.
Chris:Yeah, it makes me weak just thinking
Jeff:about it. Yeah. I wonder, there have to be statistics on this. I wonder which one is safer? Like do people get injured more in one or the other, which has more deaths?
Chris:I don't know. I, I would worry very much about the bungee cord, whatever you call it. Think of bungee cord, like you know, that you just strap made into China. Yeah. But yeah, I would worry very much about that thing. But then imagine, OK, imagine this for a second. Somebody had to pack your parachute. And who was that person and, and what was their state of mind?
Jeff:It's the same people who assemble the rides at the carnivals store parking lot.
Chris:Yeah. And what if that shoot doesn't open and yeah, you've got a second shoot. What if they pack that one too?
Jeff:Would you bungee, if you had persistent hiccups, but you knew bungee jumping would get rid of them, would you do it that?
Chris:I might have to consider that because I just, because then it'd be like, well, you know what? If I died, my hiccups would be gone. I mean, cause I can't imagine living with persistent
Jeff:hiccups. No. Just drive me to insanity. Oh my gosh,
Chris:yes. Eye drops after expiration date. We talked about that on here, I
Jeff:think. No, I don't think we did, but we talked about it that night, but I don't think we did here. OK. You said with eyedrops you, you would still use them as long as it didn't feel weird when you put it in your eye? Yes. That's your sign that they're no good anymore, is if your eye doesn't feel right after you put the drops in? I'd be worried. I'd go blind.
Chris:Well, yeah, there is that. But see, here's the thing. All right, so let's say you're using eyedrops and, and you look at them and realize, oh, they expired last month. OK. Or they're expiring this month. Do you use them? Like at what point do you cut that off? If you say, oh, they're expiring this month. Of course I'm gonna use them. And then you look at them next month and go, oh, they expired last month. Do I use them? And you go, well, they were OK last time I used them. Would they have just out of all of a sudden gone bad in a month? Well, you can start stretching that out, right? Yeah,
Jeff:true. I have used eyedrops that were past the expiration date, but I, and I don't know what the line is, but at some point I'm, I'm just not gonna put it in my eyes.
Chris:Yeah, I think I may be reaching that line with some, I have, I think they expired three years ago,
Jeff:but they still work. So do you look at expiration dates on, on foods, drinks, whatever? Yes. Yeah, I do. And you're a, are you a stickler for those? Not, I wouldn't
Chris:say a stickler, but it also depends on what it is. For example, if it's some kind of frozen food and it was gonna be good for years anyway, then if it's like a month or two past, oh well, whatever. I mean, it might not taste as good or something, but it's probably not gonna make me sick. Yeah. But other stuff, I tend to be more of a stickler about it. If I've got like, you know, there again, let's say, I don't know, uh, a juice or something. And I just drank some a month ago, and now it's one month later. Am I gonna not, uh, I'd taste it and see. How about milk?
Jeff:Oh, I, yes, very much so. With milk, like I will, when it starts getting closer to the date, I'll sniff it before I pour it.
Chris:But it always smells bad at the
Jeff:top. Well at the top. Yeah. True. So sometimes I'll, I'll taste a little bit of it to see if it's all right, but even if it's past the date, I will smell it and taste a little bit. And if it's OK, then yeah, I'm gonna drink it. Yeah.
Chris:So you will go past the date?
Jeff:I will go past the date. Yeah. On that. Um, how long is and
Chris:how long is
Jeff:acceptable? Well, I mean, if you're past like. Two or three days, you're pushing the envelope there. They used to just put dates on stuff and then when was it? 10 years ago, 20 years ago. I don't know. They started putting best if used buy that did not used to be a thing. So now I'm like, best if you use vi, well that's whatever. I can still eat it. Like it's gonna taste OK. I can still drink it. It's fine. Yeah, it's not like a line in the sand. Well, and,
Chris:and some things are different. Some will say used by some will say best if used by, yeah. Yeah. And I take those to be different. Yeah, I do too. But I have also looked up online and I found some re reputable sites. I want to say one was from the fda. But in any case, there are, you know, like food safety sites. That will give you advice on those expiration dates for certain kinds of food. Like right, if it's this kind of food, it's probably good X amount of time after the expiration date. Or best if used by especially is like, oh, beyond that date, you may notice that you know the flavor's not exactly as good as it should be, but not that it's gonna make you sick.
Jeff:Have you been following any of the debt ceiling stuff? What is this? I asked, have
Chris:you been followed? I was like, oh
Jeff:mama, you have a stalker. Are you bomb? See,
Chris:isn't that kind of the goal is that, you know, you want, you want some of the bad stuff, like
Jeff:in a way. In a way, yeah. I don't want it to happen to me. No. It would be kind of nice to know that there's somebody out there who would like to take me out. Just I hope they're not successful. Right.
Chris:Are you thinking about celebrities, the paparazzi following, following them? I mean, I feel sorry for them having to put up with all of that, but it'll almost be a little bit, it'd be nice if you could get just a little bit of it, like. I'm, I'm well known enough, famous enough that somebody wants to follow me. Somebody wants to get a picture. Right, because I can go out with no problem. No,
Jeff:nobody
Chris:gives a shit. Nobody wants to see
Jeff:anything. Nope. OK. So have you been following any of the debt ceiling stuff, negotiations between Democrats and
Chris:Republicans? Not the negotiations. I just know we're hanging in the balance and like, yeah, you know, these people are upset. Those people are upset. It's not going anywhere. That's pretty much all I
Jeff:know right now and it seems to be a common thing. This has been going on, it seems like for the past 15, 20 years. How we just run up right to the deadline of where if we don't authorize more spending, then the we're gonna default. And we actually got over the line like, when was that? Five years ago? 10 years ago. And the, the US credit rating was actually downgraded a little bit, which is mm-hmm. Like, that's scary stuff. But anyway, the debt ceiling, for people who don't know the debt ceiling, is it, it stems from a law passed by Congress back in like 1920 or May, may have been a little bit before then, but. Before Congress is going to, to spend more money, it has to authorize itself to borrow more money, which is stupid. And that's always been my thing since I first learned about this, is why is that a law in the first place? Because Congress is already authorized by the Constitution to borrow money. Right. Why is it, why does it have to authorize itself to do something that it already has a right to do in the Constitution? It makes no sense at all. It's like the Supreme Court voting on whether it's gonna, whether it's authorized to actually hear a case or not. Like it just makes no sense. Right. But anyway, that's kind
Chris:of asking the question too. Do you wanna borrow money? Hell
Jeff:yeah, I do. Yeah. And, and are people. Here's your everyday average Walmart shoppers. But people, when these debt ceiling things come up, it's always about, oh, Congress is just spending more money. Congress is spending more money. No, the debt ceiling is to borrow money to pay for stuff that's already due. It's to pay on our debts. It's not spending more money that comes with the budget Whenever Congress and the president work all that out, this is just, are we gonna pay the bills that are already due? Right. And sure as shit, better pay him or your, again, your credit's gonna get downgraded, you know, the, the confidence in the dollar's gonna drop and all that shit. It just drives me nuts that we have to go right to the edge of the cliff. And that's just the state of things in our country right now. The politics of, well,
Chris:they're all just playing a game of chicken with each other. Yeah. How close, when can we go? And if we let it get a little bit closer, then maybe they'll give us what we want. Because they don't want that to happen. They don't want the default to happen. Right. So, yeah. I mean obviously nobody wants it to happen, but yeah. It's just a game of chicken.
Jeff:It is. So I think it was the last episode we were doing the series of questions. Mm-hmm. And one of these questions touched on, uh, Taxes. I don't remember what specifically it was, but we brought up like where taxes go. Like what does, what do our taxes pay for? Right? And I looked this up. I, I've shown this kind of stuff to my students before, uh, but it's been a while, but I looked this up. This is from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. So would you like to hear where your federal tax dollars are going? Sure. All right. How depressing is this gonna be? All right. Um, this is taken from fiscal year 2022. So 21% of the entire federal budget goes to Social Security, so that covers 49 million retirees. It also provides benefits to about 3 million spouses. And children of retirees. Uh, 6 million surviving children and spouses of deceased workers. And then 9 million people are on disability. And so they get social security, uh, for that. So that's 21%. Uh, the next category they have here is health insurance. That accounts for 25% of the budget. So a full quarter goes to Medicare. That's health insurance for old people. Medicaid, that's health insurance for poor people. And then the children's health insurance program, which is Chip, uh, that's for kids obviously. And then with the Affordable Care Act, a k a, Obamacare, there are subsidies that people can get if their income is low enough to help them pay for insurance. So put all that together, that's 25%. Defense. So the defense budget makes up about 13% of the budget. Uh, so that's military spending. I'm surprised that's not a little bit higher. Yeah, I would think it would be two. Uh, about 95% of the spending in this category reflects the underlying cost of the defense department, largely for operations and maintenance, military personnel, procurement of weapons and research development, testing and evaluation. And then 11% accounts for, this is a very generic category, but welfare. So welfare excluding Medicaid, so health or, uh, just programs for low income people, right? Like food stamps, uh, things like that. What percentage was that? 11 and. Benefits for veterans and federal retirees. So federal workers have their own pension system, and then veterans do as well. That accounts for 7% of the federal budget. And then there is another 7% that accounts for interest on the debt. So we are in debt always, right? So we have to pay interest on that. So that accounts for about 7%. And then there are other categories here. I'll just list these really quickly. Education. I just like
Chris:to point out that you're at 80, 84% right now, Uhhuh, and the only thing that I benefit from out of idiot is defense. It just means that I'm not getting mowed down on a day-to-day basis.
Jeff:Right. Well, that's one of the criticisms of our healthcare is that. We're paying, we pay taxes. In healthcare, we, we can't get any of that healthcare though until we turn 65 or unless we're poor, right? So, yeah. OK. So the remaining categories, education 3%. Transportation, 2%. Natural resources in agriculture, 1% science and medical research, 1% law enforcement, 1%. International, so that's foreign aid, 1% and then all other, whatever that is, accounts for 5%. And there is a note at the bottom of this pie chart, it says, percentages do not add to a hundred percent due to rounding. So, mm-hmm. There you go. That's where our tax dollars go.
Chris:So we benefit from defense, obviously. Yeah. Education. Transportation.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I don't remember what
Chris:the others you just said at the end.
Jeff:Natural resources in agriculture. Not sure what all that entails. I mean, national parks for sure. Farming subsidies, I guess.
Chris:Oh, that's what
Jeff:I was gonna say. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, law enforcement.
Chris:That's only 1%.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah. F B I, dea, all that. And then, uh, foreign and aid. I remember they, they asked, this has been a poll that I saw like, I don't know, 15 or 20 years ago. They asked people what they thought we spent on stuff as a percentage of the federal budget and then, then what it actually is. And people, when they got to foreign aid, they were saying like 45% of the budget. Cause they hear, oh, we're just sending all this money to these other countries. But it, it's a whopping 1% of the entire budget. Yeah. Plenty of other things to be upset about. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. Well,
Chris:and it's not the, you know, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, a lot of things that you mentioned there that end up taking up a lot of the budget. It's not that I'm against those things, I'm just recognizing, you know, I've had people ask me outside of the United States like, well, what are your taxes going for? And I feel like I didn't know what to say. Yeah. Like what am I actually benefiting from? Yeah. And now with what you just said, I realize. Percentage wise, not a whole lot. Not that, right? Not that those things don't have value. I mean, clearly. Law enforcement has value, even the foreign aid can have value to us.
Jeff:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Chris:And, and the, the farm subsidies. Yeah. Those kinds of things do, but percentage wise, it's not that we're benefiting that much.
Jeff:OK. Kind of along the lines of politics, there is a series on H B O Max called the White House Plumbers. It just started. They release an episode every Monday. I think I, I think it's three episodes that I'm into now. Anyway, the plumbers were the group connected to the committee to reelect the president. Known as creep During, yeah, during the Nixon years. So, Yeah. Creep, as it was known, was the committee to, to help get Nixon reelected in 1972. And there was a group working outta the White House that they named themselves, the plumbers, uh, because they, they originally formed to deal with leaks, like people leaking information. And so that was the whole impetus behind the name of it. Anyway. It's a good series. Uh, Woody Harrelson and I don't know the other guy's name are in it, and they play two prominent figures, Howard Hunt and g Gordon Litty. Uh, just two complete assholes that ended up going to prison, rightly so for all of this stuff. But it's a good series. Uh, it's comedy, I mean, there's drama in it, but it's got some comedy in it as well. But anyway, I'm saying that to recommend it, but also. To ask you, have you seen all the President's Men?
Chris:I have, and it was, and it was recently, as in, within the last few years, I'm gonna say within the last five years. I had heard a lot about it. I had always wanted to watch it, never had, and it was, it was great.
Jeff:It was a really good movie. So I got done watching the White House plumbers, uh, an episode of that. And then it, you know, recommended some movies and there's all the president's men, and I saw it years ago, like, I don't know, 20 years ago, probably longer ago than that. And I hadn't really remember a lot of it, and I recently watched it and yeah, that's a really, really good movie, so I recommend that. But yeah,
Chris:it was good. It's amazing how they got. Into what they got into and discovered everything that they
Jeff:did. And the thing is, if it hadn't have been for them, like we might not have ever known what we know. No.
Chris:Because nobody else was doing it well. Right. And, and they had resistance. There were people that were trying to keep them from doing it, saying you can't do this. So Yeah. If they hadn't had the persistence that they did, It probably wouldn't have happened because who else was gonna do it? They saw it as being too risky.
Jeff:Yeah. And even if they had what they had, what if the editors at the paper at the Washington Post said, no, there's nothing here to waste of time. Work on something else. Yeah. I mean that, that would've been it. Just crazy to think about.
Chris:Fascinating. Really fascinating to watch.
Jeff:Yep. Great movie. All right. If you like this kind of stuff, then this is your type of podcast and you should absolutely follow us on whatever platform you listen to podcasts on. That way you will get new episodes delivered to you automatically every single Tuesday when they drop. And while you are there, go ahead and rate us. We would really, really appreciate it if you'd give us five stars. And while you're there, go ahead and write something because if you do that, it makes it easier for people to discover this show on all these different apps. We have a website. It is Subpar Talks dot com. There you can find out more about me, Chris. Uh, you can email us, you can leave us a voicemail. If you wanna make suggestions for topics we should cover on future episodes, uh, by all means go ahead and do that. We'll take those into consideration. We are on social media on Twitter. We are at Subpar Talks on Facebook. We are Subpar Talks. If you wanna follow our personal Twitter accounts on there. I am at@independentjeff
Chris:and I am at Chris Bradford tx.
Jeff:And we have some other social media links on our website. And last, but never, ever least share Subpar Talks with your. Family, friends, colleagues, get it out there on social media because the more people we have listening to this show, that makes it easier on us to get this content to you every single week. So there you go. We started out with, I don't remember what we talked about. Hiccups, and we covered it all. Yeah, we did. There's a lot there. All right. That is another episode wrap. And until next week, so long.