Rest of us would be better off if Confederacy of Takers secedes - DANA MILBANK

[Bill USA]

http://www.kjonline.com/opinion/columnists/rest-of-us-would-be-better-off-if-confederacy-of-takers-secedes_2012-11-17.html
(emphases my own)

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's opponents have unwittingly come up with a brilliant plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff." They want to secede from the union.

If Obama were serious about being a good steward of the nation's finances, he'd let them.

The White House, in one of those astro-turf efforts that make people feel warm about small-d democracy, launched a "We the People" program on its website last year, allowing Americans to petition their government for a redress of grievances. Any petition that receives 25,000 or more signatures within 30 days is promised a response (though not necessarily a favorable one) from the Obama administration.

And so a large number of patriotic Americans, mostly from states won by Mitt Romney last week, have petitioned the White House to let them secede. They should be careful about what they wish for. It would be excellent financial news for those of us left behind if Obama were to grant a number of the rebel states their wish "to withdraw from the United States and create (their) own NEW government" (the petitions emphasize "new" by capitalizing it).

Red states receive, on average, far more from the federal government in expenditures than they pay in taxes. The balance is the opposite in blue states. The secession petitions, therefore, give the opportunity to create what would be, in a fiscal sense, a far more perfect union.
(more)

[Flashmann]

1. I still,by FAR

Favor expulsion.........

[Bill USA]

2. there is also a petition on the WH petitions page that calls for the deportation of those who

want to secede.

[Flashmann]

3. Yep.....

I signed that one the first day it appeared......In fact,if I recall,I was number 80 to sign it.....

[Brigid]

4. Milbank must have read this:

"Better Off Without 'Em" by Chuck Thompson.