Defund Kentucky?
Paul Begala: It’s Time to Defund Kentucky
While its small-government crusaders decry Obama’s budget and government spending, the Bluegrass State is thriving on D.C. welfare. Paul Begala says it’s the perfect place for a truly democratic experiment.
Kentucky, the state that just elected Tea Partier Rand Paul. Kentucky, home of Sen. Mitch McConnell, who reportedly said:
…President Obama’s new budget is “unserious” and “irresponsible” because it merely cuts projected deficits by $1.1 trillion. “The people who voted for a new direction in November have a five-word response,” McConnell said, “We don’t have the money.”
So Kentucky doesn’t like federal spending. Begala writes:
Fair enough. So here’s my two-word response: Defund Kentucky. Cut it off the federal dole.
Interesting idea. Do they get to stop paying taxes and ignore federal mandates, too?
Via Memeorandum.
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Of course, not.
Paying isn’t voluntary. Only taking is.
The point is that other states are tired of Kentucky taking a disproportionate share of our tax dollars and then whining about federal spending. Kentucky received $1.51 back from Washington for every dollar it paid in federal taxes in 2005. As Begala says, Kentuckians are “a bunch of welfare queens, living off the taxes paid by blue states like California (which only gets 81 cents back on the dollar), Connecticut (69 cents), Illinois (75 cents) and New York (79 cents). That’s bad enough, but then you whine about government spending? Please. As a New Yorker, I say either stop whining or give me my 72 cents on the dollar back, and pay for your own stuff. Thanks much.
Do they get to stop paying taxes and ignore federal mandates, too?
Absolutely yes.
Let them enjoy their “liberty” from the Feds. Of course, Begala’s article states one out of every five Kentuckians receives a check from the Social Security administration. Might hurt a little to lose that.
Let these folks live by their ideals. You hate government spending, quit taking it. Fine if you quit paying the taxes that don’t cover what you get back anyway.
This is the situation in most Red States. Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, the Dakotas, Kansas. All a bunch of whining, bitching welfare queens.
And I forgot the biggest welfare queen of all: Alaska.
As a person who now lives in Kentucky and has lived in Kentucky for 4 years, that article has really made my blood pressure through the roof.
From the point of the article, he is making fun of Rand Paul, Mitch McConnel (personally I could care less for either) for saying they need to cut more spending than what Obama actually cut. When in contrast Kentucky is a state that receives back $1.51 for every $1 paid through federal taxes. Am I right?
So what does he propose the Gov’t do? Let’s not give Kentucky anymore money.
Ok. Say we do “defund Kentucky”. Let’s do the math he provided in the article. The government is cutting it’s spending by 1.1 trillion $.
80% of Medicaid and SSI = 8.5 billion
flood insurance = 2 billion
crop insurance= .667 billion(667 million in the article)
mortgage insurance = .887 billion (887 million in the article)
oh, and we also got a new fire truck for .0001 billion (100,000 dollars in the article)
So if we total this up we have 12.0541 billion dollars( $12,054,100,000)
So he is saying if we cut spending to Kentucky we will increase the cut from 1.1 trillion to 1.1120541 trillion dollars. Hmmmm.
Something doesn’t add up here. Is that all Kentucky saves the government?
Now I think for someone who it trying to make Kentucky look like we have our hands in the cookie jar he could have pulled some more intriguing numbers that would make one stop and think.
( the following is the link to the research he mentioned from the Tax Foundations webssite copy and paste the link )http://www.taxfoundation.org (
Kentucky pays in $20 billion in taxes, and receives $39 billion in spending. Totaling to $19 billion difference. So the $1.1 trillion should actually be $1.119 trillion. ??? I am still not impressed considering we spend almost $7 trillion every year.
I have included below the 10 states who receive more than they pay.
The Top 10 States
1 New Mexico – $2.03
2 Mississippi $2.02
3 Alaska $1.84
4 Louisiana $1.78
5 West Virginia $1.76
6 North Dakota $1.68
7 Alabama $1.66
8 South Dakota $1.53
9 Kentucky $1.51
10 Viginia $1.51
I forgot one intersesting piece that comes from the article. If you scrolll down all the way to the bottom of the sheet. It includes Washington DC, but doesn’t include it in the ranking (because it isnt considered a state). For every $ of Federal Taxes it pays in, it received $5.51 in federal funding!
Washington DC pays in over $6 billion in taxes each year. It recieves $37 billion.
Kentucky pays in over $20 billion in taxes each year. It receives $39 billion.
Kentuckians do not deserve to take the blame for all of the money we are receiving. It is the National Government as a whole that needs to be blame.