Paul Krugman presented a graph of the 50 United States by the ratio the federal taxes they pay to the federal money they receive. It is interesting. Here are the top ten states that pay the most and receive the least (and who they voted for in 2008):
- Delaware (Obama)
- Minnesota (Obama)
- Connecticut (Obama)
- New Jersey (Obama)
- Colorado (Obama)
- Nebraska (McCain)
- Texas (McCain)
- Illinois (Obama)
- Maryland (Obama)
- Massachusetts (Obama)
See the trend? Those states that paid the most and got the least voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
Here are the states who got the most and paid the least (and who they voted for in 2008):
- West Virginia (McCain)
- Mississippi (McCain)
- Maine (Obama)
- New Mexico (Obama)
- South Carolina (McCain)
- Alabama (McCain)
- Montana (McCain)
- Kentucky (McCain)
- Vermont (Obama)
- North Dekota (McCain)
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. I now expect that people I meet who are wholly dependent upon the government to be anti-government. I can’t exactly explain it. A few things come to mind. One is that they have all the time in the world to sit around watching Fox News and listening to Right-Wing Hate Radio. They are outraged like everyone else, but have little intellectual armor to defend against the specious arguments to be found there.
It rankles though. When asked about the money they get from the government, it is always justified. It is only those other people who are milking the system. It is only those other people who the pundits on Fox News are railing against.The conservatives they vote for would never take away their benefits; they would only take away those of the other, undeserving people.
