Author Archives: Michael Keogh

How To Combat Lower Back Pain — Pregnancy Pain Relief Techniques


Hey, I’m Dr. Gregg, with Align Wellness Center, here in Northbrook, Illinois. And if you, or someone you know is pregnant right now, they’re going to want to check out this video. You know, one of the most common problems that moms to be wind up having during their pregnancy is that they wind up experiencing lower back or neck pain. Now when you’re pregnant, one of the biggest things that becomes difficult is managing medications and or drugs when you’re going through the entire process.

Parents and moms want to be as healthy as they can be, and as natural as they can be, so that their developing baby can be as healthy as they can be as well. Now, according to the American Pregnancy Association, there are about five things that pregnant moms-to-be have had major issues with, that they can solve naturally by meeting with and getting under chiropractic care.

One of the most common ones that we wind up helping out with is lower back pain. Lower back pain winds up affecting about 50% of moms-to-be. And the reason that it winds up affecting them is when we look at the spine developing, is that as a woman becomes pregnant, their body composition changes.

Their stomach and abdomen winds up becoming larger. And the lower back winds up changing the position that it’s in, and the structure that it’s in, so it becomes stressed and strained underneath the change of physical positioning and posture. When a chiropractor works with a pregnant mom-to-be, we wind up looking to understand where are their misalignments, and where is motion improper within the spine, particularly the lower back and the pelvis, to help restore proper motion.

How To Combat Lower Back Pain — Pregnancy Pain Relief Techniques

Now this has been shown to help moms-to-be with reducing the level of pain that they experience during their pregnancy. Also, according to the American Pregnancy Association, they’ve found that chiropractic care can also help in reducing the length of time that a labor winds up being.

What an amazing thing to wind up doing. Helping a labor to be quicker can wind up making it easier on mom, easier on baby, and make it be healthier, and the need for less interventions. Additionally, they said that chiropractic care can wind up helping with reducing nausea, from morning sickness that moms wind up experiencing, as well as helping for them to maintain their flexibility. Now, I’m Dr. Gregg Gerstin, and we’ve worked with many moms-to-be in helping them to keep as healthy as they can be and as active as they can be during their entire pregnancy.

If you or someone you know is pegnant, and maybe having problems with lower back pain, or difficulty with getting through their pregnancy, please share this video with them, so they can understand that there’s a safe and natural method for them to get relief, and to help their baby stay healthy, and that they don’t need to rely on medications or drugs during their pregnancy, that can wind up affecting their developing baby.

Once again, I’m Dr. Gregg Gerstin with Align Wellness Center and I want to thank you, for letting me be a part of your health. (upbeat music).

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Back Pain Relief Exercises & Stretches – Ask Doctor Jo


Hey everybody it’s Doctor Jo, and today I’m going to show you some stretches and exercises to relieve back pain. Let’s get started. So these stretches and exercises are just for general back pain. If you’ve got some soreness in your back or it’s aching a little bit, maybe you pulled a muscle, but not a specific diagnosis. This is just the the common aches and pains that you might have.

So let’s start off on your back. Prop up your knees and you’re going to start off with a pelvic tilt. So a pelvic tilt is just kind of how it sounds, you’re taking your pelvis and tilting it back or rotating it back. So you’re flattening out your back. Imagine that your hands are in that curve, or you can actually put them there, and then you’re pushing down into your hands trying to push them into the floor.

So it’s just that rotation or that tilt of your pelvis. So when you tilt back, you’re going to hold it about three to five seconds and then relax.

To start off with, doing about 10 of those or just holding it keeping those muscles those core muscles nice and tight and relaxing. After you do those, then you’re going to go into a bridge, just to really get that back loosened up, get those tight muscles out of there. So with the bridge, you’re just going to lift your hips up until about a straight line and then slowly come back down one segment at a time.

So you’re not just popping back down, you’re going nice and controlled. So slow controlled movement, again just start off with about 10 of these and then you can work your way up to more. But this is really just get everything loosened up, getting that tightness and soreness out of there, just helping the healing process to relieve the pain. Now you’re going to do a knee to chest stretch. So just take one knee, I like going underneath because if you happen to have any problems going on top that’s a lot of pressure on there, so just grab underneath and pull your knee up towards your chest as far as you comfortably can and hold that for about 30 seconds.

So you’re pulling it, you’re not actually actively moving it up, so just hold that stretch 30 seconds then come back down. Alternate the other side, hold that for 30 seconds as well, and then you’re going to do three on each side total. After you do those, then you’re going to do a double knee to chest. So now you’re just taking both and pulling up at the same time. Again some people like to go up on top kind of grab around like this, if you have any problems you might not want to do that, and you might just want to grab underneath, so whichever way is more comfortable, but again holding that for 30 seconds and doing three of those, nice and relaxed, feel that stretch.

Back Pain Relief Exercises & Stretches - Ask Doctor Jo

A lot of times you should feel that stretch kind of underneath that low back area right there. After you do three of those, now you’re going to a trunk rotation. Again just to kind of loosen that spine a little bit and help everything relax and get that soreness out of there.

So just both legs together trying to keep the top part of your body on the ground, and just rotate over as far as you comfortably can, hold that for about three to five seconds, and then rotate back the other way. So again to comfort not to pain, and then do five on each side just kind of rotating back and forth.

After you get those done, then you’re going to turn over and kind of get back on your feet here, or however far back you comfortably can, and then you’re going to put your arms out in front of you going into a prayer stretch as far as you comfortably can, and then bring your head down and just trying to stretch everything as far forward as you can, and again holding that stretch for about 30 seconds, feeling a nice stretch in that back, coming up, and then stretching all the way back down.

And then the last stretch exercise you’re going to do is kind of a yoga vinyasa move. So you’re going to come into the plank position here. You’re going to go down and then come up into your upward dog, hold that stretch for about three to five seconds, and then push back up pushing your heels down coming into the downward dog, and then holding that for about three to five seconds. You can go through that same motion about three to five times.

So there you have it, those are stretches and exercises to help relieve just general back pain. No specific diagnosis. Just if you have a tweaking in your back, or you picked up your dog trying to put it in the bathtub to wash them, and you got some soreness back there, hopefully that’ll help relieve everything. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section. If you’d like to check out some other videos go to askdoctorjo.

com And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon. fulfilled.

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What is Life Coaching – Definition of Life Coaching Explained


Hi! It’s Ruth and today I’m talking about what life coaching actually is. If you want to subscribe to my channel I love to have you. It’s all things business, all things strategy, all things coaching, all things mindset. Subscribe here.

Hi. It’s Ruth and today I’m talking about what life coaching is. So life coaching is one of those terms that we hear a lot but what do they actually do? I remember thinking that a life coach was someone who is very old, he’s lived a lot and he was going to share all of their experience and knowledge and advice. But it’s actually the opposite.

A life coach is somebody whose job it is to help you take action towards your goals. They’re going to uncover what’s going on for you through excellent questioning, listening and raising your self awareness. So a life coach doesn’t need to have done what you what you want today. They do need to be a good listener, they do need to ask the right questions and they do need to make sure that you’re focused on a specific goal.

That goal could be something like increasing your confidence, getting a new job, doesn’t really matter what it is but it’s a forward focus.

What is Life Coaching - Definition of Life Coaching Explained

Life coaching isn’t therapy. You don’t look backwards unless you’re looking at the source of things like beliefs. It’s more about looking forward and moving you towards a place where you want to be away from maybe a place that you don’t want to be. Life coaches come in all shapes and forms. They help people with their confidence.

They help people to get a better balance. They help you be more productive. The coaching element is a way for you to raise yourself awareness and make consistent changes and they take time. So life coaching isn’t a quick fix. It’s something that I would generally recommend to have sessions over at least a three month period, so you can start implementing and making those changes.

If you liked this video and if you want to know more about life coaching, click here about my free downloadable, about what coaching actually is and if you’ve enjoyed this video and want to subscribe to my channel, I would love to have you. All things business, all things coaching, all things mindset.

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How to make Pancakes | Fluffy Pancake Recipe


This recipe makes the softest fluffiest pancakes and most if not all of the ingredients you should be able to find in your kitchen. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and whip these up for brunch this weekend. Start by measuring out a cup and half of all purpose flour into a large mixing bowl.

This recipe makes enough for 3-4 people so if you are cooking for more just double the recipe. You can find a printable version on my website, or check the information box below for the measurements.

In the same bowl as the flour measure out 4 teaspoons of baking powder.

4 may seem like a lot, but this is the secret to getting the softest, fluffiest pancakes. As the pancakes cook the baking powder is going to react and create an abundance of air, getting that perfect pancake texture. Lastly to the dry ingredients add a pinch of salt. You can add sugar here as well if you would like, around a tablespoon, but I prefer to add sweetness with toppings rather than with the actual pancake.

Use a wooden spoon to mix the dry ingredients together until they are combined. Set the bowl to the side. In a smaller bowl to mix together the wet ingredients. First crack in on large free range egg, followed by the milk. I’m using dairy but you can substitute with soy or almond if you would like.

To the egg and milk add in a 1/4 cup of cooled melted butter. Use a fork to mix everything together, making sure the egg is well incorporated. This is optional, but I love a hint of vanilla. Add half a teaspoon of pure vanilla essence and mix again.

How to make Pancakes | Fluffy Pancake Recipe

Make a well in flour and pour in the wet ingredients.

Fold the batter together with a wooden spoon until there are no longer any large lumps.. Make sure you’re not over mixing as this will lead to your pancakes being quite tough. I’ve kept these pancakes quite pain but if you do want to add blueberries or chocolate chips, or any other flavourings now would be a good time. When you are ready to cook the pancakes heat a heavy bottomed pan like cast iron over medium low heat.

When the pan has heated add a small amount of butter to the pan to melt. Scoop out about a 1/3 of a cup of batter and pour into the pan. Leave the pancake to spread on it’s own and cook for a few minutes. You’ll know it’s ready to flip when air bubbles start to form on the top. If you are unsure just use a spatula to lift up the side and check the bottom.

Flip and cook for a further few minutes on the opposite side.

If your pancakes are browning a little to quickly just adjust the heat. Place the cooked pancake on a plate and repeat with the next. You should get about 6 or 7 pancakes out of this recipe so continue until you are out of batter. Top the pancakes with maple syrup and any of your other favourite toppings.

Send me a photo if you try out this recipe, I would love to see your favourite pancake topping. Thank you for watching, I hope you enjoyed this recipe and I will see you in my next video. Bye..

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Acupuncture for Sinus Pressure and Congestion


Here is an example of what the needle looks like. We actually sometimes compare it to a cat’s whisker. It’s nothing like a hypodermic needle that you’ll see in a doctor’s office. We say about 10 of these would actually fit in the tip of the hypodermic needle. These are very fine so that’s why there’s really no pain really associated with acupuncture needling.

Let’s do the first needle. I am going to have you take a deep breath in. And exhale. Nacha: How are you doing? Dr.

Hart: Good, have you started? Nacha: And we will place one more on the other side. Anytime we needle, we always needle bilaterally. That means that we needle both sides. Nacha: How is that?

Dr. Hart: Good! Nacha: Great, and now you see me place a few constitutional needling points. One will be stomach 36. This point is one of our most nourishing points.

As I mentioned earlier, we like to use some nourishing points that are gonna have actually helped build the qi in the body. So it is this one here.

Acupuncture for Sinus Pressure and Congestion

One more we will try is long 7. As I mentioned earlier the long meridian is the meridian focused on building wei qi, that protective qi. There we go!

So that is what a sinus treatment would look like. We probably would add a few more needles but you are able to get the idea. Nacha: Dr. Hart, how do you feel? Dr.

Hart: I feel great. Nacha: Acupuncture actually induces a very deep relaxation during the treatment. Once all the needles are placed in, I will dim the lights and you will feel deeply relaxed. And almost everyone says that’s the best sleep they get usually after an acupuncture treatment. It really helps release all of those endorphins that help relax the system.

I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to acupuncture..

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Jamie Oliver on making the perfect omelette – Jamie’s Ministry of Food


Hi guys,

Welcome to the ministry of food We gonna do omelettes. Omelettes are fantastic! They’re cheap, they’re flexible you can use all sorts of different things: crispy bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheeses, you name it! I think omelettes are the kind of thing that don’t really get the sort of credit that’s due actually if they are cooked beautifully they are incredible They are cheap! Eggs are one of the best forms of protein Go free range organic eggs!

You’ll be laughin’ Personally I use three eggs for a main course omelette Just crack them in like this Get your egg, crack it on the side, open it up… if for any reason you got shell in there use the half of the shell to get the shell out And if you try with your fingers, you’ll be going like this all night, and it won’t work! So, pinch of salt.

..

And pepper…

Like that! Some people put milk and cream… I don’t!

… At all!.

.. I got a pan, the right sized pan…

about, sort of, 7 inches, I guess… That’s on a medium heat whisk up your eggs..

. Just a little bit of oil… extra virgin’s obviously is a nicer way to go a knob of butter in there.

.. let that start to melt…

give it a cheevy about in the pan you wanna coat the bottom of the pan like that The great thing about omelettes and eggs is that if you get the first one wrong, then learn from it, try again and just get it perfect! If is too dark, cook it less If is too hard, cook it less If is too soft, cook it more So… we’re gonna turn that down a little bit there You want it about medium heat, don’t rush it, otherwise if you cook eggs too hard and too fast, you get this kind of horrible.

… ..

..horrible sort of crispiness to it which we don’t like…

Now, for the first 20 seconds…

You can bring in..

. the eggs… from the sides, like this.

.. and where is a gap, there, don’t worry just tilt the pan…

and then you can bring it in here, and then you can tilt the pan just like this, all right? and then, after about 30 seconds, you’ll wanna squiggle the egg around one last time and turn the heat down a bit and I’m putting a little bit of cheddar cheese in now you could use all sorts of different cheese… but I think cheddar cheese is just great you need the tiniest amount and this is just for a basic omelette so I just grate the cheese over the omelette like this.

.. You can see that the eggs still look a little soft around here That’s good news…

Coz the egg…you don’t want it to be overcooked and hard, You want it to be silky and delicious But, yes! You don’t want it raw!

So…just gonna let it just take over on a low heat now for about..

.40 seconds Just as this sort of…softness of the eggs just start turning.

.. You can just look at it, you can see it You can see the egg changed color Then you get your slice like this…

You can just go around the edges… don’t sort of over touch it..

. just go around the edges… and just lodge it.

.. non-stick pans for this, really essential, I think unless you got a good old cast-iron one See if you can move the omelette like that…

. Can you see how the omelette’s moving? all right. So in theory I shouldn’t get any grief So what I do then, is: I tilt the omelette away put my spatula..

into one side like this… get it underneath..

. I don’t want to overcook the omelette and then just flap it, like that, that’s all we want And that is heavenly you can see a tiny bit of colour there… which is.

..enough loads of colour and it’s gone hard…

Then all I do… is just serve it! And in the middle there.

.. you’ll have a beautiful omelette I mean that…

you know, as a snack, with a salad, cold meats… just on its own, a tiny bit of ketchup, lovely, chopped tomatoes, you can start making your own omelettes up just by frying, let’s say, mushrooms first, then..

.

doing your omelette like that… you could fry crispy bacon first and then put the eggs into it.

.. so you can really make so many different things out of an omelette And I want to show you inside, here what you don’t want is like an overcooked egg, cos’ it’s boring what you want is…

that sort of… fantastically soft..

. silky… sort of inside.

.. Can you see it in there? You want it to be soft and silky..

. Alright? It’s not a raw egg. Is just lovely..

. lovely melted cheese. 9 out of 10 Oliver See if you can get your eggs that good Good luck! And if you’re gonna pass that on home or at the work place this is a great dish to do Simple, but brilliant! Good luck!

.

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How to Master Email Marketing (2023)


Are you really just going to sit here and pretend that email marketing isn’t one of the most important parts of your business? We are? [MUSIC PLAYING] OK. For everyone else though, the data tells us that there are 4.3 billion, with a B, email users worldwide.

With certainly more than half of the planet using email, your business can’t afford to not have an email marketing strategy. And unlike those social media platforms with their confusing features and constantly changing algorithm and no one liking your posts for whatever reason, email marketing is relatively straightforward. What’s up? I’m Jamal from HubSpot. In this video, I’m going to teach you the basics of email marketing, setting you up with a foundation for success that can last for years.

If you find this useful, be sure to like this video and subscribe to the HubSpot YouTube channel. [MUSIC PLAYING] So, how do you become a master email marketer? Put simply, it’s divided into three steps. One, build your list. Two, maintain the health of that list.

And three, email that list with valuable content every time. Let’s start by building your list. When building your email list, there’s really one rule and one rule only. And that’s, never buy or rent a list. And actually there are more rules, but let’s just focus on that one for now.

Buying or renting an email list can lead to low open-rates, bad brand appearance, and even hefty fines from privacy protection agencies. So what should you do to build up a quality email list? Well, here at HubSpot, we built our email list by producing free ebooks that users discovered when searching for topics like introduction to data visualization or how to become an influencer.

Maybe you can offer free trial of your service or an online seminar or other experience. Whatever you offer, it needs to be something valuable enough to convince users to part with their personal email information.

In addition to the landing page, most websites will let you place a pop-up to collect email. Set one to appear after the user has spent some time on your site which indicates that they’re receiving value and might be open to more information.

And if your business involves online ordering, make sure customers are prompted to opt into your email list when making a purchase. Why is it important that users opt in? Well, having users opt in means they want to hear from you.

It also keeps you compliant with the ever-stricter antispam policies being implemented by governments as well as email services themselves. A double opt in is even more effective since it requires the user to open and click an automated email they receive when signing up. This not only prevents users from giving fake emails, but it also trains their email app to recognize quality messages from you. And with that, we just got to the spam folder. Way to go.

How you go about building your email lists, will set the stage for future success.

But just as important is how you maintain your list. This means periodically scrubbing your email list to remove emails that bounce or addresses that never open your emails. A good rule of thumb is to scrub your list every six to 12 months. You might be wondering, what’s the harm in emailing people who don’t open them?

Right? Why can’t I just– I should be able to do that, right? Well, another metric that email algorithms use to determine if something is spam, is the engagement ratio. The more you send emails that never get opened, the more likely the email services will eventually categorize your emails as spam. Makes sense?

The good news is that despite these increasing obstacles to email deliverability, the overall value of email marketing is actually on the rise. In 2010, Digital Marketing Association put the return on email marketing at $40 for every dollar spent.

By 2019, that return increased to $42 for every dollar spent. Why has the ROI gone up? Because I’m opening everyone’s emails for them.

No. But actually though, a major reason is an increased use of segmentation in email marketing. Segmentation means dividing your email list into smaller groups so you can send each segment content specific to their interests. You can segment your list by demographic data, like location, company size, or anything else that’s important for your business. But the real email managers use what’s called behavioral segmentation which is grouping based on how the user previously interacted with your brand.

Things like previous purchases, lifecycle stages, and customer loyalty. Creating triggered email flows for specific behaviors allow you to be responsive to your user’s needs. So it’s no wonder that 77% of email marketing ROI comes from these sorts of segmented, targeted trigger campaigns. It’s the best tool for getting your audience the valuable content they’ll want to open because they know it’s tailored to their interests. And that– that’s inbound, baby.

How to Master Email Marketing  (2023)

Which brings us to our final step in mastering email marketing. Send valuable emails. The average office worker receives around 120 emails per day. That is many. Out of that 120, 40 are important business emails that require a response.

That leaves 80 other emails vying for attention. The only way to stand out is by having a super click bait title for the subject line.

That’s a real tip. You should do that. No.

The only actual ways to stand out by offering something your subscribers want to click on because it somehow improves their lives. Think about a company like OpenTable who uses subscriber’s past behavior to offer useful discounts or recommend new restaurants. Or Spotify who send regular emails notifying users of new music by artists they follow. These are great examples of valuable emails that subscribers want to receive and are happy to open. One more useful tip.

Whenever you’re recommending something to your subscriber, be sure to remind them of the activity that triggered the recommendation. That way they associate the good feeling of the previous experience with the new one you’re offering. Now, when it comes to emails, conveying value starts with the subject line. This can mean literally telling the recipient what they’ll get from opening the email.

And try to do it in 50 characters or less.

Use those 50 characters to peak the customer’s interest. Don’t give everything away up front. Like me with Bobby Jenkins in the fourth grade. I gave him my Goku action figure. And then he just– he didn’t talk to me anymore after that.

Leave a bit of mystery so they’ll feel compelled to open the email to no more. Just be sure that whatever you tease in the subject line is actually delivered in the body of the email. No one likes deceptive click-baity subject lines.

I was kidding before. And 69% of spam reports come from subject lines alone.

So watch out. Now, you can also use the preheader. That is the first few words in the body of your email that get previewed in your inbox to support the subject line. Most email marketing systems will allow you to set the preheader when you enter the subject line, so you don’t have to worry about altering the actual body copy of your email. And always A/B test your subject line so that each email you send, teaches you something for the next one.

So all the messages from your email list have been delivered. And thanks to your brilliant subject line and preheader, good job. Folks are itching to read what you sent them. So what are you going to say? [MUSIC PLAYING] Crafting killer email copy could be its own video.

Until that time, here’s some tips. Tip number one. Keep text neat and simple with the main point upfront. Use short sentences with lots of paragraph breaks. Save those verbose-think pieces for your blog.

This is an email. Tip number two. Write for your audience. Remember those list segments we made? This is why they’re so important.

And tip number three. Write in a friendly one-to-one style. This isn’t just a good way to treat your customers, it also helps for your email from getting tagged as spam. And speaking of spam, HubSpot keeps an extensive list of spam trigger words that you should avoid when writing email copy. There will be a link in the video description below.

And if you don’t click on it, I’ll be sent to the spam folder. You should also run your email through a spam test before sending it, to make sure your formatting punctuation and fonts all pass through the filters. There are plenty of free spam checkers online you can use. You’d be amazed how a few tiny tweaks can make a huge difference. So, when it comes to email marketing, sending valuable content in a compliant format to users who you know want to receive it, will allow you to execute successful campaigns for years to come.

Happy email. I’m off to the spam folder. I don’t know why that’s like my “I messed up sound.” But it is, and we’re rolling with it. [MUSIC PLAYING].

Read More: How to Start a Digital Marketing Agency in 2019 [SMMA]

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Tasty Tuesday: Lentil Soup


(upbeat music) – [Narrator] Today, I will be sharing with you, one of my favorite recipes which is lentils and it is very easy, very fast to cook, very inexpensive and highly, highly nutritious with very low calories. As you can see, nutrition plays a vital role for overall good health and it promotes wellness, complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being. Well, these are the ingredients that we will be needing and most of them we already have at home and I already have all the ingredients prepared. Remember, before we cook we needed to wash our hands, thoroughly wash all veggies, all utensils that we’re gonna be needing, hygiene, hygiene. These are the instructions, Soup Lentil.

Tasty Tuesday: Lentil Soup

It is very easy, very tasty, very nutritious and that is it. If you just taste it and you can serve it in your favorite bowl and this is how it’s gonna look. And it smells delicious and it tastes delicious..

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The new US tax law, explained with cereal


Ever since they won control of the government in 2016. Republicans have been obsessed with getting this one thing done. Tax reform. We’re going to have a phenomenal tax reform. They’ve passed a bill, the President has signed it, so let’s break down what’s actually going to change.

Imagine that instead of getting paid in dollars, you got paid in cereal. The government takes a certain amount of cereal in taxes. And it uses it to pay other people to do things build roads, fly fighter jets, do research. You get the picture. The more you earn, the bigger the share of your cereal the government takes.

Sometimes the government wants to incentivize you to do certain things with your cereal. Like if you buy a house for a hundred pieces of cereal, and then sell it for 200 pieces of cereal, you’d normally have to pay capital gains taxes on that profit. But there’s a special loophole that says you don’t have to. The tax code is full of loopholes like this, which means if everyone puts their cereal together, there would be two bowls.

One that the government dips into for taxes, and one it doesn’t.

Now, Republicans want the government to take a smaller portion. And they say they want people to keep more of the cereal. But if they do that, the government won’t have enough cereal to pay for what it needs. So part of this new law is taking some of the cereal that’s not taxed, and change the rules so that it is taxable. That way, the government can take a smaller share of the cereal but still pay for the stuff it needs.

This is what politicians mean when they talk about ‘broadening the tax base.’ Here’s the problem: Republicans aren’t broadening the base enough.

They’re taking a lot less cereal from people and adding some new taxable cereal but not enough to pay for what the government needs. To pay for that stuff, the government is going to have to go into debt. This means they’re going to have to take even more cereal, years in the future to pay back the debt they’re taking out now.

Republicans think this will help grow the total amount of cereal available to both tax payers and the government. So what happens to that 1.5 trillion dollar gap? It goes back into people’s bowls but not everyone gets the same share.

If you break the population into five equally sized groups based on how much they earned in 2017 and look at how much each group will earn in 2018 every group does get a tax cut.

But fast forward ten years and you can see that lower and middle class Americans will actually pay more since their tax cuts aren’t permanent. And if you break that top group into smaller groups you can see the very wealthiest benefit most of all. So while this new law does close some loopholes to bring in new tax revenue The bill’s larger purpose is to realize the Republican vision of a fairer tax code.

One in which the wealthiest pay a lot less..

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How tax brackets actually work


These are tax brackets for 2019. Simple, right? But many of us make a common mistake when looking at this. Let’s say my income is $84,000. You might think that puts me in the third bracket.

So I would owe the federal government 22% of my income. This is wrong. And it’s causing us to have uninformed debates about tax policy. Here’s how it actually works. Let’s go back to my $84,000 income.

Now, instead of thinking of tax rates as brackets, we should think of them as pockets. But first there’s one special pocket we need to talk about. The money we put in this pocket is not taxed. The government automatically lets single people put $12,000 in this special pocket — and more for couples. But if you spend a lot of money on things like medical expenses or charitable donations, you can sometimes put in more.

These are called “deductions.” With the $70,000 that’s left over we can start filling up the pockets.

How tax brackets actually work

This first pocket has room for $9,700, so I only pay 10% on this money. Then I pay 12% on the money in the next pocket. And then 22% on the money in this pocket.

These are called marginal tax rates. And that’s how these brackets actually work. So if I get a raise, that new money goes into the first pocket with empty space. When space runs out, we put it in the next pocket. So the raise, and only the raise, would be partially taxed at 22%.

And partially at 24%. So, when politicians say they want to raise the top tax rate, it doesn’t necessarily mean these pockets — and your money — are affected. They’re talking about the tax rates on the pockets way over there, which are only used once people have filled in these smaller one. Marginal tax rates are a pretty simple concept, once you get the hang of it. So the next time a politician says the government wants to “take away 70% of your income” just send them this video.

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