Mr. Potter: "Why don't you collect on these mortgages? Or foreclose?"
George Bailey: "I can't do that, Mr. Potter. Some of these families have children."
Mr. Potter: "They're not my children."
George Bailey: "They're somebody's children, Mr. Potter!"
Does that exchange sound at all similar to this one? -
Senator Stabenow: "Some insurance packages don't even cover maternity care."
Senator Kyl: "I don't need maternity care."
Senator Stabenow: "Your mother probably did..."
Senator Kyl: "More than 60 years ago..." [long pause for: pangs of conscience? realization that he may become the Poster Child for Dems in the 2010 mid-term elections? No, simple vanity:] "I may have given up too much information about my age."
If either of these exchanges makes your blood boil, read on...
(Warning: the following may contain subtle humor, to be distinguished from comedy. It's a Minnesota thing; I grew up one town over from Garrison Keillor.)
Dems and the Beck/FOX Party seem to be shifting positions lately. Dems are supporting competition, cost control and other traditionally conservative values, whereas the BFP is sinking into the depths of selfishness, moral contradiction and financial incoherence. But there's a dirty little secret no one's bringing up, the fact that conservative states suck more money out of the Mommy State than they put in. Most Republican states take in way more federal dollars than they pay in taxes. "Contributer States" (As R-TX Governor Rick Perry called them) are, in fact, much more likely to be states that voted for Obama in 2008 than those that voted against him.
If states choose to opt out of health reform, could states that choose to "opt in" retain just a little bit of these annual subsidies to "Freedom Loving Patriot States" who "don't want government involved in their lives"?
To assure that the poor and children are not adversely affected, our generous contributions to these states would be held harmless. As for those democratic states that receive more federal funds than they pay in taxes, they would continue to be welcome members of our giant-ly wasteful Socialist Nazi Communist Peacenik Fascist Welfare Mommy State." Also, I checked, and conservative states do not take in a disproportionate share of military spending.
How long would it be before the conservatives blinked? If these tables are reliable (coming directly from the darling of the right wingnuts, The Tax Foundation), they show just how successful these Closet Income Redistributers have been.
In the table below, States are either "D" Democrat or "R" Republican. The "RR" is the "Redistribution Ratio," the amount of federal taxes received per dollar paid in taxes. Data are for 2005, the most recent available.
POTTER'S WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION FORMULA
State | | RR | Rank |
Alabama | R | 1.71 | 6 |
Alaska | R | 1.87 | 2 |
Arizona | R | 1.30 | 19 |
Arkansas | R | 1.47 | 12 |
California | D | 0.79 | 32 |
Colorado | D | 0.79 | 30 |
Connecticut | D | 0.66 | 49 |
Delaware | D | 0.79 | 40 |
Florida | D | 1.02 | 27 |
Georgia | R | 0.96 | 31 |
Hawaii | D | 1.60 | 8 |
Idaho | R | 1.28 | 21 |
Illinois | D | 0.73 | 46 |
Indiana | D | 0.97 | 33 |
Iowa | D | 1.11 | 25 |
Kansas | R | 1.12 | 23 |
Kentucky | R | 1.45 | 14 |
Louisiana | R | 1.45 | 13 |
Maine | D | 1.40 | 16 |
Maryland | D | 1.44 | 15 |
Massachusetts | D | 0.77 | 33 |
Michigan | D | 0.85 | 38 |
Minnesota | D | 0.69 | 44 |
Mississippi | R | 1.77 | 4 |
Missouri | R | 1.29 | 9 |
Montana | R | 1.58 | 9 |
Nebraska | R | 1.07 | 28 |
Nevada | D | 0.73 | 45 |
New Hampshire | D | 0.67 | 47 |
New Jersey | D | 0.55 | 49 |
New Mexico | D | 2.00 | 1 |
New York | D | 0.79 | 40 |
North Carolina | D | 1.10 | 27 |
North Dakota | R | 1.73 | 5 |
Ohio | D | 1.01 | 32 |
Oklahoma | R | 1.48 | 11 |
Oregon | D | 0.97 | 34 |
Pennsylvania | D | 1.06 | 29 |
Rhode Island | D | 1.02 | 21 |
South Carolina | R | 1.38 | 17 |
South Dakota | R | 1.49 | 10 |
Tennessee | R | 1.30 | 18 |
Texas (darn!) | R | 0.94 | 36 |
Utah | R | 1.14 | 22 |
Vermont | D | 1.12 | 24 |
Virginia | D | 1.66 | 7 |
Washington | D | 0.88 | 36 |
West Virginia | D | 1.83 | 3 |
Wisconsin | D | 0.82 | 39 |
Wyoming | R | 1.11 | 26 |