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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito who wrote (147595)	10/20/2010 12:38:10 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 541922

"My state has been helping to support yours for many years." Yes, we have. It's time to stop. They are totally ungrateful. Beggars on the street corner will thank you, but beggars in state houses never will. Cut off the subsidies. Give us our 22 cents worth, and watch us balance the budget in about 5 minutes. Charity begins at home, eh?

To: Cogito who wrote (147595)	10/20/2010 4:43:13 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541922

I don't think those numbers mean what you and Wharf think they mean. I heard this explained on TV recently, in fact, but didn't catch all of it. The gist of it was that federal dollars that go out to states doesn't necessarily mean this is some kind of aid to the state, i.e. money that goes into the general revenues for the state to use as it sees fit. Those charts reflect federal money that is also going to a state for the support of federal endeavors, such as military bases, corps of engineer lakes, levees, dams and waterways, and national parks....to name a few off the top of my head. I guess federal penitentiaries would also be included....and the large, regional VA hospitals. NASA and Cape Kennedy, too, as well as Indian reservations. Many of these things serve to benefit a whole region of the country, but they obviously have to reside in a particular state, which means the maintenance money goes to a particular state.....thus counting as federal dollars to that state. The levee system of the entire Mississippi River brings federal money to each state along the route for maintaining those levees. But the river itself benefits all the companies that ship on it and anyone in the country who travels it for pleasure. Same could be said for any national park. When it comes to tax dollars being returned to all the states in the form of aid, I feel sure it is quite proportional to the population of each state. If not, one would read of protests from state governors, etc. There would be some move by the have-not states to get back more of their money, don't you think? Has Arnie complained? He was gov. while Bush was Pres. Seems like CA would have gotten its fair share back then. As for Arkansas, we're a small state with only 3 million people. But federal money comes into the state for two bases, two huge corps of engineer lakes plus one-half of a third (these lakes draw fishermen and tourists from all over and supply the drinking water for a huge section of the mid part of the country), and a federally maintained lock and dam system for both the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. And part of the big Cherokee Nation reservation system spills over into Arkansas from OK.

To: Cogito who wrote (147595)	10/20/2010 5:07:53 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541922

>>I will now point out that in 2005 (the last year for which I have numbers) Arkansas received about $1.41 in federal dollars for every tax dollar sent to Washington, whereas California got 78 cents. My state has been helping to support yours for many years.<< Great point. All the federally-supported infrastructure like highways, airports, military bases, and national parks should be ripped out of the low-population states and moved into the high-population states where it belongs! It's just so unfair that Alaska gets more Coast Guard funding than, say, South Dakota. Why should the entire country have to pay for rescuing the fishermen who catch their dinner? What about the large FAA presence in Alaska? Why can't those over-entitled pioneers pay the entire bill to support the 2nd-busiest cargo airport in the USA, where planes refuel on the route between Asa and the USA? Eilson AFB near Fairbanks has a huge unpopulated area for combat training. Let's move it to New Jersey! And don't even get me started on all the federal involvement to support and monitor Alaska oil production. Just shut off that pipeline already and switch to solar! Etc.