Rugged Individual Hangouts

On the Huffington Post comments section about the government shutdown pmttnp posted:

"Our DEBT/Government Spending Problem is RED STATES! THE TAKERS and the low wages

"Take a look at the difference between federal spending on any given state and the federal taxes received from that state. We measure the difference as a dollar amount: Federal Spending per Dollar of Federal Taxes. A figure of $1.00 means that particular state received as much as it paid in to the federal government. Anything over a dollar means the state received more than it paid; anything less than $1.00 means the state paid more in taxes than it received in services. The higher the figure, the more a given state is a welfare queen.

Of the twenty worst states, 16 are either Republican dominated or conservative states. Let's go through the top twenty.

New Mexico: $2.03
Mississippi: $2.02
Alaska: $1.84
Louisiana: $1.78
West Virginia: $1.76
North Dakota: $1.68
Alabama: $1.66
South Dakota: $1.53
Kentucky: $1.51
Virginia: $1.51
Montana: $1.47
Hawaii: $1.44
Maine: $1.41
Arkansas: $1.41
Oklahoma: $1.36
South Carolina: $1.35
Missouri: $1.32
Maryland: $1.30
Tennessee: $1.27
Idaho: $1.21
Does anyone else notice the overwhelming presence of northern "rugged individualist" states, like Alaska, the Dakotas and Montana, along with most of the South? Race to the bottom!"

Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-18/politics/30039546_1_blue-states-federal-taxes-red-states#ixzz2OtabJq7d


That's certainly something to ponder.

Meanwhile, another commenter, Beatriz09, was pointing out the idiocy of where the Teapublicans have been going in a great way:

"  Members of the GOP conference acknowledged there was not yet a firm plan. "I think that there are some ideas that are percolating, and I think those ideas are part of this process, and I think that as those ideas get vetted among people in formal and informal discussions, then two or three of the better ones start coming to the top," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.).
WHAT? Their government shut down will soon cost the taxpayer (= INCREASE the deficit by) $3 billion, and they didn even have a PLAN before they started this kind of wasting of taxpayer money? They just want us to pay even more, all while being busy with "thinking that there are some ideas that are percolating" ... NINE days after they did something as radical and expensive as shutting down the government?
You cannot but remember the beginning of the Iraq war. There too, the GOP leadership had lied the American people into something big, then spent billions to launch it, but once Saddam was toppled, Bush STARTED to consider the idea that he should begin to think about HOW to deal with the aftermath, politically and militarily. Result: a decade long war, that could have been ended MUCH earlier, as generals on the ground constantly told Bush and the GOP in the WH. They refused to listen to basic facts ... .
The same is happening today, but now on the domestic front. After having lied about Obamacare AND Obama's debt and spending record for years, the GOP decided that maybe shutting down the government for a while might POLL well. ALL independent experts and this time EVEN Karl Rove warned them that that was wrong, and that it would lower the GOTP approval rate. Now that that's EXACTLY what is happening, they realize that MAYBE they'll also have to come up with a plan that allows them to get out of the mess they created ... . Incredible. I still don't understand what happened to the Grand Old Party since the neocons and TP took over."

That makes for two fantastic ponders from a single article about the Shutdown.