President Barack Obama’s opponents have unwittingly come up with a brilliant plan to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” They want to secede from the union.
If Obama were serious about being a good steward of the nation’s finances, he’d let them.
The White House, in one of those astro-turf efforts that make people feel warm about small-d democracy, launched a “We the People” program on its website last year, allowing Americans to petition their government for a redress of grievances. Any petition that receives 25,000 or more signatures within 30 days is promised a response (though not necessarily a favorable one) from the Obama administration.
And so a large number of patriotic Americans, mostly from states won by Mitt Romney last week, have petitioned the White House to let them secede. They should be careful about what they wish for. It would be excellent financial news for those of us left behind if Obama were to grant a number of the rebel states their wish “to withdraw from the United States and create (their) own NEW government” (the petitions emphasize “new” by capitalizing it).
Red states receive, on average, far more from the federal government in expenditures than they pay in taxes. The balance is the opposite in blue states. The secession petitions, therefore, give the opportunity to create what would be, in a fiscal sense, a far more perfect union.
Among those states with large numbers of petitioners asking out: Louisiana (more than 28,000 signatures at midday Tuesday), which gets about $1.45 in federal largess for every $1 it pays in taxes; Alabama (more than 20,000 signatures), which takes $1.71 for every $1 it puts in; South Carolina (26,000), which takes $1.38 for its dollar; and Missouri (22,000), which takes $1.29 for its dollar.
Since the effort gained attention this week, copycats in all but a few states have joined the petition drive. To be fair, White House officials could refuse the secession petitions of states Obama won, such as New York (which gets only 79 cents on its tax dollar), Michigan (85 cents) and Colorado (79 cents).
What would be left is a Confederacy of Takers, including relatively poor states such as Alaska, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. One of the few would-be confederacy members that pays more than it receives is Texas, which because of oil money is close to break-even at 94 cents of benefits for its tax dollar. (The statistics, from an analysis of tax and revenue data by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, were published in 2006, but the broad pattern doesn’t vary much over time.)
Depending on how aggressive a fiscal hawk he wishes to be, Obama could also try to offload onto the Confederacy of the Takers North and South Dakota and Montana ($1.73, $1.49 and $1.58 in benefits, respectively), but this would probably only work if Canada agreed to allow overflight rights for American aircraft to reach the West Coast states of Washington, Oregon and California (88 cents, 97 cents and 79 cents on their tax dollars, respectively).
Possibly, the new United States would need to negotiate certain protectorates in the confederacy — Austin, New Orleans, South Florida and the like — the way the British did in Hong Kong. Then there is the awkward matter of what the breakaway nation would do to its poor.
But once the handout states left the union (and took with them a proportionate share of the federal debt), the rest of the country could enjoy lower taxes and the high level of government service typical of the Northeast, the Great Lakes and the West Coast.
There would also be nonfinancial benefits. Tampa’s Central Command, now caught up in the David Petraeus sex scandal, would be the new nation’s problem. And the exit of a number of Southern representatives from Congress would give Democrats a solid governing majority.
Of course, secession isn’t as easy or as painless as an electronic petition, and Obama couldn’t offer a redress of these petitioners’ grievances even if he wanted to. Nor should he want to: The Union of the Makers would be fiscally healthy but spiritually poor without the Confederacy of the Takers.
Yet would-be rebels from the red states should keep in mind during the coming budget battle that those who are most ardent about cutting government spending tend to come from parts of the country that most rely on it.
Dana Milbank is a columnist for The Washington Post. His e-mail address is danamilbank@washpost.com
Then where would Obama get his stash from? Some of these states would do very well on their own and could form their own “unions”. Just think of the possibilities. Produce their OWN fuel and sell it to Obama. Tell the fed govt to go find it’s spending money somewhere else. All monies collected would then STAY in the particular state enhancing job growth and imagine businesses packing up and moving to those states?. No fed telling them what they can or can’t do. Have their OWN education set up. Have their OWN trade with other states and/or countries. La and Tx have their own ports and would have their own oil producing “countries”. While the blues go green, the reds will be collecting the green. Hmmm.. then the states could handle illegal immigration as they saw fit. Then the blues could hit all the leftovers to spread the wealth,take care of the illegals and continue to grow their recipient class. Interesting concept with a lot of upside to it.
Haven’t you been following? The red states are the “taker” states. Good riddance!
haha a lot of what you just described is funded in part by Federal money.
And what if the money those states are sending to the fed govt STAYS in those states? I would venture to say they could do a much better job of managing their state than the fed does and negotiate their own contracts and have their own regulations which would probably be far less restrictive. Imagine what businesses would move in a heartbeat to such places?
Well considering those states GET more federal money then they give, they would be worst off. That means more of those state monies will have to go towards those things the fed money was paying for.
And yet your comment has absolutely no basis in reality. Those red states are taking more than they give.
Hmm..and when they don’t have to “give” anymore, sounds like they just may have plenty for their own.
Dude, read the article. Dollar for dollar, red states take much more than they give compared to blue states. That’s fact. So, if red states were on their own, they’d be getting less because they contribute less. Blue states would have more for themselves if they didn’t have to pick up the slack of the red states. FACT.
Let’s do it dude…..I’m soooo ready!!
Hopefully I get a chance to snipe out a few dems along the way to winning back the natural right of seccesion for all American free, and sovereign states.
It’s time to win back the country that the tyrannical terrorist named Lincoln stole from the people so many years ago.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Yet another Ted the “diaper” Nugent types. What was it he said
“if I had gone to Nam I would have killed everything especially those dirty hippies in the foxholes” ROFLMAO, he meant the ones that actually had the guts to take his place in battle………… What a hero you guys have on the right. Problem is you guys have proven time and again that you’re ALL talk and can’t walk the walk. JackLakesonXT, I bet you couldn’t “snipe” the side of a barn with a cylinder bore shotgun at 10 yards.LOL!
Top Ten Greedy States (Source: Tax Foundation):
1. New Mexico Indian reservations, military bases, federal research labs, farm subsidies, retirement programs
2. Mississippi Farm subsidies, military spending, nutrition and anti-poverty aid, retirement programs.
3. Alaska Per capita No 1 recipient of federal benefits; infrastructure projects, DOT and pork projects.
4. Louisiana Disaster relief, farm subsidies, anti-poverty and nutrition aid, military spending.
5. W. Virginia Farm subsidies, anti-poverty and nutrition aid.
6. N. Dakota Farm subsidies, energy subsidies, retirement and anti-poverty programs, Indian reservations.
7. Alabama Retirement programs, anti-poverty and nutrition aid, federal space/military spending, farm subsidies.
8. S. Dakota Retirement programs, nutrition aid, farm subsidies, military spending, Indian reservations.
9. Virginia Civil service pensions, military spending, veterans benefits, retirement, anti-poverty aid.
10. Kentucky Retirement programs, nutritional and anti-poverty aid, farm subsidies.
Now consider the bottom 10, i.e., the ones that give more to the federal government in taxes than they get in return. From 1 to 10, they are:
New Jersey, Nevada, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Illinois, Delaware, California, New York, Colorado.
Anything strange about that list? Yes, they are all blue states (or the deepest of purple).
Maine takes the 4th most!
Wrong. Don’t spread misinformation. Louisiana is 4th. We’re in the middle but closer to the bottom. We’re 30.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/10/25/blue_state_red_face_guess_who_benefits_more_from_your_taxes.html
Wrong, Texas has the world’s 5th largest economy – stop trolling
Read the article and the comments and then think for a moment before spewing nonsense. This is about what is contributed to the federal government and what is given back by the federal government. Red states as a whole get more benefits than they give, blue ones get few benefits than they give in tax dollars.
Don’t tell me I’m trolling you are the talking about something completely irrelevant.
Someone sent me this. It sums it up rather well, I think.
________________________
Dear Disgruntled Red
States:
With regard to your many recent requests to secede
from the US, we in the
Blue States are hereby in agreement to let you go. In fact, if there is
anything we can do to help you on your way, please do not hesitate to ask.
However, since we can’t trust you that you will actually leave, we’ve decided we
are leaving…“Legitimate rape” is almost reason enough!
We plan to make New
York the capital of our new country and we’re taking the other Blue States with
us. In case you aren’t aware, these include California, Hawaii, Oregon,
Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the rest of the
Northeast.
We believe this split
will be beneficial to the nation and especially to the people of our new
country, The Enlightened States of America (E.S.A). Hopefully it will also
benefit you in the remaining Confederate States of America.
To sum up
briefly:
You get Texas, Oklahoma
and all the other slave states.
We get stem cell
research and the best beaches.
We get Andrew Cuomo and
Elizabeth Warren. You get Bobby Jindal, Todd Akin and Rick
Perry.
We get the Statue of
Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get Intel, Apple and
Microsoft. You get HealthSouth.
We get Harvard. You get
Ole’ Miss.
We get 85 percent of
America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get
Alabama.
We get two-thirds of
the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair
share.
Since our aggregate
divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch
of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that
The E.S.A. will be pro choice and anti war and we’re going to want all our
citizens back from Afghanistan at once. If you need people to fight, ask your
evangelicals. They have kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths
for no purpose and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their
children’s caskets coming home.
We wish you success in
Afghanistan, and possibly Iran as well, but we’re not willing to spend our
resources in these sorts of pursuits. And we don’t care if you think Obama is a
Muslim or that Romney killed Bin Laden.
With the Blue States in
hand we will have firm control of 80% of the country’s fresh water, more than
90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95% of
America’s quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all
cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal,
all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools
plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States you
will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health
care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the
hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists,
Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of
Georgia.
We get Hollywood and
Yosemite, thank you.
38% of those in the Red
states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is
sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that
evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you
brainiacs believe you are people with higher morals then we
lefties.
We’re taking the good
weed too. You can have that crap they grow in Mexico.
Sincerely,
Citizens of The
Enlightened States of America
Good one!!! We get the best whales and whale watching. They get more of the poisonous snakes . It goes on and on. Who needs Disney World! If someone likes that kind of thing they can go to DisneyLand anyway. The blue states are so much better. You can’t beat New England! (for history, beauty and smart people!)
The wannabe secessionists represent an incredibly tiny percentage – they do not speak for their entire states.
Acting as if there were legitimate movements in place to actually follow through with secession is foolish. While the facts may be true, sowing further division and encouraging it is almost as bad as the secessionists themselves. Poor winners are as intolerable as poor losers.
The USA is great because of all it’s states. Divided, we would without a doubt be much weaker.
Guess what – Texas by itself is the world’s 5th largest economy – stop the nonsense, no one is going to secede, and how about practicing toleration of others’ viewpoints.
We always knew this was about having a guy who isn’t white in the White
House. …. Cut-em lose, they can create their own wing-nut-la-la-land.
Yes, there has never been any doubt about that. It’s like….”how dare he!”
You on the left keep bringing up racism.
Look in the mirror for a close up view of a racist.
Do you think folks on the right would have a racist view toward C. Rice, H. Cain or Colin Powell. You on the left are racist s c u mm
and you’re a goofball
The truth is funny, isn’t it? All these people pointing their fingers and really they should be pointing those fingers at themselves.
I say burn DC to the ground and stop pointing fingers altogether
Calling Homeland Security.
Calling Homeland Security.
We have a live one.
Yessah
The problem with this logic is that the red states don’t want any handouts, but the blue states want to pay more in taxes and increase handouts. That is perfect harmony. The red states should get as much out of the government as they can and ask for more. Only an idiot would refuse a handout. And only an idiot would continue to keep giving handouts when they can’t afford it.
Top Ten Greedy States (Source: Tax Foundation):
1. New Mexico Indian reservations, military bases, federal research labs, farm subsidies, retirement programs
2. Mississippi Farm subsidies, military spending, nutrition and anti-poverty aid, retirement programs.
3. Alaska Per capita No 1 recipient of federal benefits; infrastructure projects, DOT and pork projects.
4. Louisiana Disaster relief, farm subsidies, anti-poverty and nutrition aid, military spending.
5. W. Virginia Farm subsidies, anti-poverty and nutrition aid.
6. N. Dakota Farm subsidies, energy subsidies, retirement and anti-poverty programs, Indian reservations.
7. Alabama Retirement programs, anti-poverty and nutrition aid, federal space/military spending, farm subsidies.
8. S. Dakota Retirement programs, nutrition aid, farm subsidies, military spending, Indian reservations.
9. Virginia Civil service pensions, military spending, veterans benefits, retirement, anti-poverty aid.
10. Kentucky Retirement programs, nutritional and anti-poverty aid, farm subsidies.
Now consider the bottom 10, i.e., the ones that give more to the federal government in taxes than they get in return. From 1 to 10, they are:
New Jersey, Nevada, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Illinois, Delaware, California, New York, Colorado.
Anything strange about that list? Yes, they are all blue states (or the deepest of purple).
They don’t want handouts? And yet, dollar for dollar, they take much more than they give. You’re just making stuff up trying to erase these facts. “only an id iot”? Maybe you shouldn’t be talking…
Alaska, with a reverse income tax, is poor?
I’d have to check the figures but that annual income they get from oil is is significant.
The election is over, this is simply a liberal fluff piece substantiating that anyone who isn’t a democrat is trash – from a liberal Democrat himself who is tired of people practicing divisiveness and intolerance of other people’s viewpoints, from either side.
58 million people disagree with them….and most of us own a number of guns
they can call liberty loving Americans trash all they want but we WILL win in the end, as the light will ALWAYS prevail over their darkness
Ah yes – the GOP “Second Amendment Solution”.
Good luck with that.
Yessah
Just in case you need a reminder, liberals aren’t the ones expelling people from their party for being DINOs.
Really – disagree with the liberal democrats who are ruining the party in the long haul and see how “tolerant and inclusive” the party is becoming; you are an excellent example of that intolerance and I might declare as an independent because of the hypocrisy I hear.
How many incumbent Democrats have lost primary races because they weren’t far left enough? How many have been forced out of office by extremists? How many have been demonized as DINOs? You can keep launching those personal attacks, but it doesn’t erase or change reality.
Just what we need another message about our differences, and who owes whom what.
I lived in Idaho. It is beautiful. Hard-working friendly folks, much like here in Maine. When I was there they lived on Paper making, forest products, and potatoes.
Lived in Oklahoma. poor folks beaten to death by northerm indrustrialists and bankers. Still friendly hard-working, and suprisingly not very prejudiced.
Lived in Montana, Fantastic wide-open spaces with people who really DON’T stick their nose into your business. NEVER stood on the side of the road for more than two cars before someone asked me if I needed a ride. The ticket here is DON’T’ ask for anything, but OK to take what’s offered.
Lived in Indiana. Nice friendly folks, a bit on the churchy side, but when I was there hard working farm folk who had huge families. It must be almost impossible to starve in Indiana because people are always offering you food.
Lived in Louisiana, up around Baton Rouge nice friendly folk, bunch of diners where I washed dishes. seemed to me as if everyone in the State was a salesperson.
Back when I was traveling around people talked to each other. Most didn’t discuss religion or politics, so I have no idea what party, or church they attended. It would have limited my associations, and I would have been poorer if I based my friendships on something so shallow.
It’s our country. All of it. and I’m not willing to give ANY of it away to a small group of folks who believe they know what’s best for their neighbors.
Hadn’t heard of those petitions. Incredible. Nice sarcastic piece pointing out to those non-thinkers what’s really involved. Of course there are equally good aspects to red state culture etc.but they seem to have an excess of non-thinking extremists. Hopefully, nobody takes these secessionists serious.
Dear Red States:
We’re ticked off at your Neanderthal attitudes and politics, so we’ve decided we’re leaving.
We in New York, Mass and CA intend to form our own country and we’re taking all the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren’t aware that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Md, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Vermont, the rest of the Northeast, and DC also. We’ll also take any “swingers” who want to join us.
We believe this split will be beneficial to the entire nation and especially to the people of our new country called “The Enlightened States of America” (E.S.A).
To sum up briefly:
You get Texas, Oklahoma, AZ and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research, the best beaches, and we’ll take all of the creative gay people you don’t want anyway.
We get Barack and Michelle, Bill & Hillary, Andrew Cuomo, Elizabeth Warren, and Diane Feinstein. You get Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Donald Trump, and Todd Akin, with tin hats all around.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get Apple, Intel, Microsoft and all the smart technology. You get WorldCom, the Koch Bros, Karl Rove and all the coal/oil pollution.
We get Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UC and Princeton. You get Ole’ Miss.
We get Silicon Valley, NYC, San Fran, Seattle, and Bill Gates.
You get Alabama and Arkansas.
We get two-thirds of all the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition states, so we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of angry single moms and deadbeat dads.
With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80% of the country’s fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95% of America’s quality wines (you can serve Ripple at your state dinners), 90% of the best cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all the living redwoods, solar power, the Sequoias and condors, all the Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UC, UCLA, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all the obese Americans and their projected healthcare costs, 92% of all US, mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all the Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, plus Rush Limbaugh,Glen Beck, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia, and, once again, tin hats for everyone.
We also get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you very much. You
get Appalachia.
You get the 38% of those in the Red states who believe that the world was created in 7 days and that Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, the 62% who are pro-life for fetuses but not for the kids who are actually born or their Moms, those who believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, the 44% who know that evolution is only a theory, the 53% who still believe that Saddam was part of 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction, that Obama was born in Kenya, and the 61% of those crazy bastards who even believe they have higher morals then we do. We’ll also throw in the guy who believes a woman can’t conceive if she is “legitimately” raped.
We get all the paved roads and highways; you get the dirt roads (this includes crumbling bridges). We get the high performing schools with unionized teachers; you get poor performing schools w/ non union teachers. We get the police; you get to carry guns everywhere. We get fire fighters; you get fire hoses.
We get good healthcare; you get overcrowded emergency rooms because people go there instead of to a doctor.
We will be able to retire at 65; you will work till you drop dead. We will get Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, and Katy Perry. You get Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and MeatLoaf. We get George Clooney, Ron Howard, Alec Baldwin, and Tina Fey. You get Gary Busey, Victoria Jackson (if anyone even remembers who she is), Jon Voight, and Clint Eastwood (BONUS: we’ll even throw in his chair). We get the NYTimes, Washington Post, and The Economist. You get the newspapers and magazines that Sarah Palin reads… “any and all of ‘em”.
We’re taking all the good weed too. You can have that crap they grow in Mexico.
Sincerely,
A Citizen of the Enlightened States of America