:: The Rational Radical Blog ::

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Red Bush States are the Moochers

Each year, the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit research group, crunches numbers from the Census Bureau to produce an intriguing figure: how much each state receives in federal spending for every dollar it pays in federal taxes.

...You might expect that in the 2000 presidential election, Republicans, the party of low taxes and limited government, would have carried the Giver states — while Democrats, the party of wild spending and wooly bureaucracy, would have appealed to the Taker states. But it was the reverse. George W. Bush was the candidate of the Taker states. Al Gore was the candidate of the Giver states.

...For President Bush, this invisible income redistribution system is a boon. He can encourage his supporters to see themselves as Givers, yet reward them with federal spending in excess of their contribution — and send the bill to those who voted for his opponent. It's shrewd politics.

And it's typical Bushian flim-flam. Here's a link to the full report. My devoutly wished-for fantasy is to divide up the red and blue states into separate nations.

Jack Clark 3:02 PM [+]   
Post #107584933529729996