Left-Wing Buchananites(Is it true that you red-staters are living off the public dole?)

Best of the Web Today ^ | November 9, 2004 | James Taranto

[Samwise]

Gee.... I went from evil rich Republican to government-subsidized welfare-recipient Republican in a week.

[PW Leader Canton]

Nope all the educated Red have to go to the Blue so they have jobs in Social Work. Does the left mean that since (THEY SAY) they pay more in taxes that they should have more say? SOOOOOOO the poor they pander to should not vote at all? Tell me us evil conservatives do not have to save the poor from the rich? Gee, all this time the poor were told we were the evil rich....I am sad...now I am an evil conservative, stupid, welfare taking, poor children lunch stealing, old people check taking, air & water polluter, SUV driving, war mongering, low tax paying, Christian bible thumper. At least I am loved by 53% of America...YEA!!!

[jimthewiz]

I would like to see a breakdown based on red counties versus blue counties.
The inner cities are the biggest recipients of government monies.

Most of the food and energy comes from the red. (Unless there are some huge gardens in NYC that we haven't heard about.)

[k2blader]

Anyone who supports the socialist institution of social security (just one example) has no credibility on the subject of "living off the public dole".

[The_Reader_David]

Okay, let's change that: cut off all federal programs in support of agriculture, not just price supports, all of it. Food prices do what? Which states was that spending reallyb benefitting?

"Destroy the cities and they will rebuild themselves, destory the farms and grass will grow in the streets of every city."
--William Jennings Bryant (a bit of a git on a lot of things but....)

[NonValueAdded]

I'd like to see a better analysis of the money flow here. I remember hearing that Florida gets back only 70% of the money that flows out to the Federal Govt and Florida is NOT a blue state so right off the bat, their claim isn't all inclusive. Next, look at the 3-D county map. The blue is concentrated in urban population centers and on a per capita basis, I have to believe the people in those blue towers are recipients of the transfer payments that make up so much of the Federal budget.

Could it be that the blue counties claim their net payer status due to the corporate taxes paid by companies headquartered in their cities? Consider that when the blue counties leave, the resultant social program load on the red states will be considerably reduced. When you consider the resulting lower tax rates in the red zone do you think those companies will remain behind in the blue funk? I don't think so. The same thing goes for the rich people who will loathe to be that close to the huddled masses yearning to be fed.

[XRdsRev]

Here is the breakdown FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000

This list shows the amount of Federal aid & program value received per dollar in Federal taxes collected.

- California $ 0.86
- Colorado $ 0.85
- Connecticut $ 0.62
- Delaware $ 0.84
- Georgia $ 0.99
- Illinois $ 0.74
- Indiana $ 0.92
- Massachusetts $ 0.86
- Michigan $ 0.81
- Minnesota $ 0.76
- Nevada $ 0.69
- New Hampshire $ 0.71
- New Jersey $ 0.66
- New York $ 0.86
- Ohio $ 0.97
- Oregon $ 0.93
- Texas $ 0.96
- Washington $ 0.87
- Wisconsin $ 0.83

Florida $ 1.00

+ Alabama $ 1.54
+ Alaska $ 1.68
+ Arizona $ 1.18
+ Arkansas $ 1.38
+ Hawaii $ 1.56
+ Idaho $ 1.30
+ Iowa $ 1.04
+ Kansas $ 1.02
+ Kentucky $ 1.41
+ Louisiana $ 1.39
+ Maine $ 1.32
+ Maryland $ 1.32
+ Mississippi $ 1.78
+ Missouri $ 1.26
+ Montana $ 1.59
+ Nebraska $ 1.09
+ New Mexico $ 2.03
+ North Carolina $ 1.06
+ North Dakota $ 1.86
+ Oklahoma $ 1.46
+ Pennsylvania $ 1.06
+ Rhode Island $ 1.18
+ South Carolina $ 1.27
+ South Dakota $ 1.46
+ Tennessee $ 1.20
+ Utah $ 1.06
+ Vermont $ 1.08
+ Virginia $ 1.48
+ West Virginia $ 1.75
+ Wyoming $ 1.09

[colorado tanker]

Larry's a liar, liar, liar, liar. Larry is unfit for commentary. Liar, liar, liar.

[Nataku X]

Amazing isn't it... now they want to be the party of the rich and educated because rich and educated people are automatically more enlightened and better people... that'll work really well in 2006 and 2008... LOL

[Mr. Buzzcut]

I think they should break this down by county to show the real story.

Yup ... my state (NY ... can't help it i was born here) is like two different states.

[Auntie Dem]

I say so what if we receive more tax $$$ than we pay? These hypocrite liberals are always saying everyone should be paying more taxes, like we owe it as a duty to pay more. To your average liberal paying taxes (and the more the better) is a privilige.

Now they tell us they don't want to pay taxes because some of the money might go to some redneck in a red state? What happened to that rose-colored glasses outlook they had about taxes before the election?

[followerofchrist]

Last time I checked, "left-wing" Buchanonists were in favor of actual immigration reform, while "right-wing" Bush was planning to legalize illegal aliens, provided they were employed. Oh, wasn't that...this morning when this announcement was made? Vincente Fox wants to "whole enchalada" which also includes "basic services," such as schooling and medical care for non-citizens. How come your President cannot say "Mr. Fox, why don't YOU provide your own people with jobs and "basic services?"

Thanks neo-cons, for making the traditional right an entity which supports bringing over illegal aliens to take our jobs (the ones left over after the others are sent overseas) and putting the burden of supporting their large families on hard-working American taxpayers.

[x]

In a lot of opinion polls, the choice you make is generally qualified by a "how strongly do you feel about that" question or choice. And that's one thing that gets left out of this controversy. People who vote for one candidate or another may be quite insistent and determined in their preference, but they aren't passionate enough about their choice to break up the country if the other guy gets more votes.

Off the top of my head, those who are overtaxed may be suburbanites. Some of them earn a lot of money and pay taxes on it, and don't get government programs tailored specifically to their interests, as urbanites or farmers or ranchers might.

There are more suburbanites in New Jersey than in Wyoming, both in absolute numbers and in percentages, but how does the suburban voter in New York or New Jersey or California compare to the suburbanite in Texas or Georgia or Ohio. Can we argue that one group makes a larger contribution or is more exploited than the other?

And blue state suburbanites may have gone for Kerry, but by how much, and how passionately do the feel about him? The idea that there is some strongly pro-Kerry group that is exploited in a large way is a dubious one. And does it work the other way? If the Democrats had won, and Republican voters didn't want to pay for Democrat programs, would that justify secession?

[The_Reader_David]

The claim is based mostly on where state-side military spending is concentrated, together with agricultural spending, federal highway dollars, and various and sundry things which tend to be spent in proportion to land area or are concentrated in Alaska and the intermountain west (things like national parks and dams which provide water and power for California, but are located in nearby Red States).

I guess the Blue Staters will be really happy when the prices on everything they buy go through the roof once the feds stop supporting agriculture and funding the roads in the rest of the country.

[RKV]

The evidence of the is claim is quite strong, and unfortunately the RATs are correct. Please see http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2004/09/red_states_feed.html

[vpintheak]

Well if that is the case, which it isn't, shouldn't those poor lefties who are getting screwed out of the governments welfare programs get the H out of the cities? It makes sense in the lefty world of non-reality.

[SueAngel]

I heard today that the core constituency of the Democrats in the election was made up of high school dropouts and people with post-graduate degrees. Bush supports were typically high school graduates and college graduates.

Hmmm... Sounds like the "really smart" people can fool the less educated more frequently, but they are having a really hard time fooling the rest of us.

[Moconservative]

I love that quote by William Jennings Bryan. The large cities need us more than they know.

[NavVet]

I'm not sure I'm buying the premise, but if they are serious why not link voting power to taxes paid. Do that and the whole country turns red.

[hlmencken3]

The Tax Foundation, hardly a leftist organization, notes these facts:

Mean federal expenditure per dollar of federal taxes paid is $1.12.

*01 - North Dakota 2.03
*02 - New Mexico 1.89
*03 - Mississippi 1.84
*04 - Alaska 1.82
*05 - West Virginia 1.74

*25 - Kansas 1.14
26 - Vermont 1.12
27 - Pennsylvania 1.08

*31 - Ohio 1.02

*34 - Florida 1.00

*36 - Texas 0.92

38 - Michigan 0.90

41 - California 0.81
42 - New York 0.81

45 - Illinois 0.77
46 - Minnesota 0.77
*47 - Nevada 0.73
48 - New Hampshire 0.68
49 - Connecticut 0.64
50 - New Jersey 0.52

http://www.taxfoundation.org/ff/taxingspendingupdate.html