I'm sure glad we have John McCain and Sarah Palin protecting us from that evil socialist, Barack Obama. Coming from Connecticut, consistently one of the three states with the highest incomes, I need someone who will safeguard my earnings from heinous distribution of wealth. I know that McCain and the Republicans will ensure that my fellow Nutmeggers will reap the benefits of our higher taxes.
Just look how good a job they do now...
According to The Tax Foundation (http://www.taxfoundation.org), 32 states receive more in federal money than they pay in taxes. For instance, New Mexico residents receive $2.03 for every tax dollar they paid. Missiippi gets $2.02. Alaska - home of that maverick Sarah Palin, and swimming in a budget surplus funded by oil that topped out over $150 a barrel, gets $1.83 for every tax dollar they pay. On the other hand, Connecticut and New Jersey only receive 69 and 61¢ for every tax dollar paid, respectively. They and 16 other states support the residents of the other 32.
So, what's the big difference between these states? Well, you can say that states with lower incomes pay less in taxes, which sounds logical, except that Alaska is one of the other states consistently in the top 3 for per capita income. You might explain it by pointing out that some of these beneficiaries have a lot of federal facilities, like the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, or the Pentagon in Virginia, or federal offices in Maryland. But Texas has NASA, Rhode Island and Connecticut have military ship builders, and huge swaths of Nevada are owned by the US. But these four pay more than they receive. You may even think it has to do with raw political power, but that seems far-fetched with Texas only getting back 94¢
Let's take a look at the Electoral map from 2004:
Now take a look at how the Republican controlled Congress distributes our tax dollars in 2005. It looks like the United Socialist States of Republicans! (Red states received more funding than paid in taxes):
See any similarities in these maps?
Don't you think it's time that the Media started investigating the Republicans for these anti-American practices? Where's Michelle Bachmann on all this? I'd say someone ought to show this map to Sarah Palin, but she'd probably claim the Vice President gets to decide who gets the tax dollars.
Progressives understand the benefits of a Social Democracy, and we're willing to pay taxes to support it. When Democrats promote the benefits, it's called Socialism - even Communism by one Republican senator. But when the Republicans redistribute the wealth to their supporters they call it "fairness." But we know what it's really called...
[Electoral map was corrected, thanks to Dirk]