Harold Meyerson: Welfare-queen states

[alp227]

Okay. Just for the hell of it, let’s go after the debt and the deficit the Republican way. No new taxes. All through cutbacks. And I’ll confine my quibbles to a few parenthetical asides.

To begin, then: We’re broke! We can’t afford any more taxes! (Well, America’s 400 wealthiest taxpayers certainly can. In 1955, according to the Campaign for America’s Future, the country’s 400 wealthiest taxpayers had an average income of $13.3 million (in 2008 dollars) and paid 51.2 percent of that in federal income taxes. In 2008, according to IRS calculations, they had an average income of $270.5 million and paid 18 percent of that in federal income taxes. And in 1955, by the way, we could afford to pave roads.)

(...)

Happily, the Tax Foundation — a conservative Washington-based think tank — has, however unintentionally, provided the answer. In 2007, the foundation published a survey of 2005 federal spending in each state and compared that with each state’s contribution in federal taxes. In other words, the foundation identified the states that sponge off the federal government and those that subsidize it. The welfare-queen states and the responsible, producing states, as it were.

The list, alas, hasn’t been updated — in part, no doubt, because conservatives didn’t like what it revealed: that those states that got more back from our government than they paid in were overwhelmingly Republican. The 10 biggest net recipients of taxpayers’ largess were, in order, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, South Dakota, Kentucky and Virginia. The 10 states that paid in the most and got back the least were New Jersey, Nevada, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Illinois, Delaware, California, New York and Colorado.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/welfare-queen-states/2011/05/17/AFzTK45G_story.html

[lazarus]

1. interesting thesis, but

it needs numbers. How much do those red states sponge? If we balanced it out so that all states were in equilibrium, how much would it affect the deficit?

On edit:

Found an infographic that sort of starts to get at the numbers.

http://dailyinfographic.com/federal-tax-dollars-per-state-infographic

[former9thward]

2. BS region bashing.

You say "welfare queen" states. Ok what welfare do you want the federal government to cut back on in these states? Military salaries for the bases in these states? Maintenance of federal lands in these states? Did you know that the federal government owns most of the west? Do you wish the federal government stop spending money on their installations in these states? What about native Americans in the western states? Do you want the federal aid payments to end for native Americans? What exactly is the welfare that you want to end?

[txlibdem]

4. Western states? Mississippi, Louisiana, W. Virginia, N. Dakota, Alabama, S. Dakota, Kentucky???

You do have access to a map? (google has one if you need it).

[txlibdem]

5. DailyKOS had this chart in 2009 - Texas is the only Red state that gets back less than they pay in

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/13/792808/-Red-States-are-Welfare-Queens!

[rpannier]

6. Sure

W. Virginia is west because it's in the name WEST Virginia. Just like North Carolina must be up north because it's NORTH Carolina.
As to the other states you noted, they are all west if you begin at the original 13 colonies and then everything west of them is the west.

[former9thward]

8. What "welfare" in those states do you wish to end?

Military bases, federal installations, maintenance of federal lands, what??? If you are going to post BS at least back it up.

[rpannier]

9. Okay. You asked

When base closures came up, those areas of the country that are constantly bitching about how much the federal government spends and how oppressive it is would lose their bases.
If the people who are getting the highest amount of federal money are going to whine and snivel about how awful it is the government spends so much money, I'd give them their wish.
No state is entitled to a military base. No state is entitled to have large federal research facilities (NASA, Government research facilities, etc) in their states.

You can be sure when that day arrived, Senators from Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama would be screaming about how unfair it is that their bases would be closed.

Face it, someone is gonna suffer (and probably quite badly) because the Republikkans are insistant on cutting money from the government no matter how stupid the cuts are.
They've got a legion of followers, largely in the area from Texas moving north into the Dakotas. But it also cuts across the south.
They're going to hold the government hostage until they get their way, cut subsidies for Nebraskan farmers, pull military bases out of Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, NC, SC and Mississippi.

I doubt the people of those states would be happy if the government that and reality might finally click -- maybe not. But, somewhere along the line the line needs to be drawn, "If you hate the federal government so much, we'll give you less of it. And give more to places that want it."

In case you want to try and turn this into a "I hate the south moment." forget it.
If I was Governor of California I'd do the same thing to Modoc County. Modoc County gets the highest percentage of state aid (relative to taxes paid) in California and they continually vote against paying higher taxes and other state spending unless they get that money too. Poor and minority in LA and the state wants to spend money to help you? Not with Modoc County taxes.

[former9thward]

10. I agree that no state is entitled to government/military facilities.

The decision on where to have those should be based on military and economic reasons and that alone. I also agree, if that is what you are saying, that subsidies for farmers should be ended (along with the ethanol subsidy). They have long outlived their usefulness.

[former9thward]

7. Western and Southern

The Dakotas are west of the Mississippi and that is the western half of the U.S. Get out of your basement. The South is the preferred region to bash on DU. I see you did not address my points. Typical.

[Demeter]

3. End the 3 Stupid Wars, and No Problem

stop using the armed forces as the New World Order global enforcers, and shut down 80% of the bases.