After the American Century
It is time for states to be treated equally, and it is time to stop wasteful federal spending. I therefore propose that no state be permitted to receive more than it pays in Federal taxes. If a state has been living on federal welfare in the past, it will have to stand on its own two feet and stop living off others. Individualism and self-reliance are virtues for states as well as individuals.
For example, for the last two decades the State of Alaska has received more than it has paid in. In fact, it has received $1.84 for every dollar it sent to Washington. This is obscene. Alaska has no state income tax, due to all its oil revenue. Indeed, residents of Alaska get a check every year, because the oil revenues are so large that there is always a surplus. Why should people in New York or California cut services in order to pay for Alaska, when it is rolling in money?
Now it happens that, as in this example, the states receiving the most federal funds are also those with strong Tea Party movements and vocal opponents of welfare, Obamacare, and most other forms of federal funding. We should keep faith with these voters and make sure that they get what they are demanding: less from Washington.
Here are the ten states whose welfare payments are way out of line. The figure after it indicates how much each of them received for every dollar it paid in. States in (the) Red consistently have voted for the Republicans and embraced the rhetoric of a smaller federal presence in their lives. It is time for them to live up to their self-reliant ideals.
New Mexico $2.03 (a swing state)
Mississippi $2.02
Alaska $1.84
Louisiana $1.78
West Virginia $1.76
North Dakota $1.68
Alabama $1.66
South Dakota $1.53
Virginia $1.51 (a swing state)
Kentucky $1.51
I can see why the voters of Mississippi and Louisiana and Alabama are angry at Washington. How dare the Federal Government pump billions of dollars into their states, weakening their self-reliance and turning them into welfare queens?
Meanwhile, other states ought to getting money back. They have been over-paying for decades. Here are the ten states that have been supporting those hypocritical "individualistic" Tea Party types. California and New York have cut their world leading universities and school systems to support welfare in states that say they do not want the money. New Jersey has been losing 39 cents on every dollar it invested in the Federal government.
New Jersey $.61
Nevada $.65 (swing state)
Connecticut $.69
New Hampshire $.71 (swing state)
Minnesota $.72
Illinois $.75
Delaware $.77
California $.78
New York $.79
Colorado $.81 (swing state)
What should we conclude? Clearly the Federal deficit has been created largely by Red states, and they not only should be cut off from this kind of welfare, but also they should pay back what they have borrowed, with interest. Why should New York or California, which have been cheated all these years, also pay back on that part of the deficit created by the RED states?
With state's rights come state's responsibilities. Time for the Red States to begin paying for the deficit they have created.
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