Gail Collins makes a snappy point about the Governors who are most vocal in making a show of declining federal money:
Louisiana has gotten $130 billion in post-Katrina aid. How is it that the stars of the Republican austerity movement come from the states that suck up the most federal money? Taxpayers in New York send way more to Washington than they get back so more can go to places like Alaska and Louisiana. Which is fine, as long as we don’t have to hear their governors bragging about how the folks who elected them want to keep their tax money to themselves. Of course they do! That’s because they’re living off ours.
The Tax Foundation monitors donor states versus beneficiary states. 2005 is the most recent data I saw immediately. The top 10 beneficiary states: New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, South Dakota, Kentucky, and Virginia. (Receiving, on average, $1.70 in federal tax dollars per tax dollar contributed.) That’s a pretty red grouping of states. Colorado, New York, California, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Nevada, and New Jersey were the top 10 donor states (receiving, on average, $0.73 in federal tax dollars per tax dollar contributed.) That’s a pretty blue grouping of states.
So, when Louisiana’s ($1.78/$1) Bobby Jindal says he’s refusing stimulus dollars, maybe he’s really saying, “No, no, you’ve already been too generous.” I propose we balance the budget by bringing those federal tax beneficiaries down close to a $1/$1 ratio. Then we’d really hear those rugged individualist Alaskans ($1.84/$1) howl.
So, do you think the argument that the stimulus money would require states to create new programs that will later go unfunded is BS?
If so, why?
I never got the idea that those states were saying “We don’t want money”, they were saying “We done want money if it means we have to change the way some of our programs are run”.
I got the idea that the governors from those states were saying, “I’m a Republican and we would like to win elections against Democrats. Therefore, I am putting on a show of fiscal austerity now that there is a Democratic President in office while continuing to receive federal money in the background.”
Good ol’ Indiana, right in the middle of the pack there at #30 and $1.05/$1. We’re so milquetoast!
Puh-leez. Every Federal dollar returned to the states comes with strings attached.
The stimulus bill sends $3.8 billion to Louisiana. Piyush is fine with $3.7 billion of it. You mean to tell me that the state government of Louisiana (Motto: Let’s See The Mafia Do This!) is not annually importuned by at least .26% of the of Federal tax receipts it receives (at, ahem, $1.85, not $1.75 per dollar sent to Washington)?
Really, you guys wanna grandstand the stimulus bill, go ahead, but can’t you just be honest about it? That States’ Rights schtick is not exactly your best play, especially since Reagan can’t run again.
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Yeah. It cracks me up when people who receive a regular paycheck from the government complain about somebody else getting anything. Especially Jindal, whose whole family works for the G or for gvt. contractors & gvt-connected law firms. Bobby grew up in government subsidized housing. His family came here on the gummint’s dime. Is this his way of paying all that back?
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Yeeeeaaaahhhhh… it’s always that way with these fiscal scolds.
I like especially watching folks like John Bohner and Mitch McConnell on the teevee telling me that the government can’t spend this kind of money on America.
Where were they when Bush was asking for a War in Iraq? Oh, yeah, telling us that it’s immoral to ask the price tag.
Cool, so then it’s justified. They did it! Spend away!
Now, just to play devil’s advocate, let’s challenge the Blue folks here, who as I hear tell, believe something on the order of, “to each according to his need, from each according to his ability”.
When I look at that list of recipient Red States, I also see some of the poorest in the Union. If it is progressive to redistribute wealth, shouldn’t West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama be somewhere near the front of the line?
And, if the rich should pay, then shouldn’t New York, California, and Connecticut be right at the front of the line to pay?
Obviously, the Republicans don’t have a leg to stand on making protest on the basis of fiscal conservatism. But neither do Democrats have a leg to stand on in challenging the redistribution of wealth among states.
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The Blue States have always paid more and gotten less than the Red States, because the red States are POOR, and, like REAL Christians, we believe in caring for the less fortunate, even if they are worthless ungrateful “conservative” hypocrites. And the conflation of real-world political scale right-of-center US liberals with Russian communists is the mark of a real political illiterate.
Rush is on now. Better go refill your head. It’s empty again.
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I see. So, a real Christian views the recipient as “worthless” and “ungrateful”. I see. The bitterness and vitriol of the response is telling.
Heh- Rush Limbaugh. That’s rich! As if.
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You forgot “conservative” & “hypocrite.”
Fill ‘er up!
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