The Blue-State Tax Burden -- Only a flatter federal-tax structure can relieve it.

Wall Street Journal ^ | December 13, 2004 | MARC SUMERLIN

[OESY]

Of all the Democratic complaints about the presidential election, the most interesting and ironic came from Lawrence O'Donnell, a leading party strategist and former aide to Sen. Pat Moynihan. He complained on MSNBC that, "The segment of the country that pays for the federal government is now being governed by the people who don't pay for the federal government." Mr. O'Donnell added for good measure, "Ninety percent of the red states are welfare client states of the federal government."

It hardly seems either consistent or politically "on message" for Democrats to talk about "welfare client states" when describing Social Security checks received by Floridians and Black Lung benefits received by West Virginians. Redistribution has been the sine qua non of Democratic economic policy for 70 years.

Of course, many conservative Republicans have a similar complaint on the tax side.... Rich people pay disproportionately more taxes than do other people. Blue states have higher average incomes, more rich people, and therefore pay higher taxes, than do red states....

Democrats like Mr. O'Donnell seem to want the rich to pay more in taxes, but not for rich states with rich people to pay more taxes....

What to do? One obvious point is that if you have a federal income tax, you can't have tax rates that vary by state. However, this leads inescapably to the mathematical fact that flat taxes are not only simpler by most measures, they are also the only way to deal with the type of unfairness that Mr. O'Donnell complains about. Flatter is fairer....

As higher-wage jobs leave the overtaxed, higher-cost areas, both the local economy and the state's tax base decline. This often creates a need to raise state and local taxes still further, making those states and regions still less competitive....

[OESY]

Mr. Sumerlin is managing director of The Lindsey Group.

[NetValue]

ODonnell has been so unprofessional, over-the-top, paranoid, and out of control that I wonder if he is using drugs or medications.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I'd love to see the income of the average dem compared to the average conservative. Comparing states is silly. State income has not winner take all like the Electoral College is.

[aynrandfreak]

Would they let a drug addict be a major writer for "The West Wing"?

[NC28203]

>>>Would they let a drug addict be a major writer for "The West Wing"?

Careful. The leading voice of the conservative movement with over 20 million listeners weekly just happens to have been an admitted drug addict.

[aynrandfreak]

It wasn't affecting his job performance as far as any of us could tell.

[Redbob]

"The segment of the country that pays for the federal government is now being governed by the people who don't pay for the federal government." Mr. O'Donnell added for good measure, "Ninety percent of the red states are welfare client states of the federal government."

They've achieved their stated goal - from each according to his ability, to each according to his need - and now they're complaining about it?

I don't understand.

[L98Fiero]

"The segment of the country that pays for the federal government is now being governed by the people who don't pay for the federal government." Mr. O'Donnell added for good measure, "Ninety percent of the red states are welfare client states of the federal government."

Some people just don't relize all that exists in red "fly-over country". The red part of the map is massive compared to the blue. National forests, rivers, parks, schools, disaster relief(tornado, flood, hurricane), government facilites, military bases, etc. Given the sheer amaount of land encompassed by the red states when compared to blue states, does anybody find it surprizing that more federal money goes to reds?

Who pays more to keep up his yard? The guy with one acre or the guy with 50 acres?

[NC28203]

>>>It wasn't affecting his job performance as far as any of us could tell.

West Wing had some pretty good numbers and won several awards (winner of 9 Emmy Awards, including Best Drama Writing) when Sorkin was doing the writing.

[aynrandfreak]

Fair point, but O'Donnell can't seem to keep it together.

[datura]

"West Wing had some pretty good numbers and won several awards (winner of 9 Emmy Awards, including Best Drama Writing) when Sorkin was doing the writing."

And this proves what? That the masses who watch TV are idiots? That the judges for the Emmy's are also idiots? Who gives a damn about Hollywood?

If enough of us would learn to ignore them completely, they would in fact go away.

[tom h]

"The segment of the country that pays for the federal government is now being governed by the people who don't pay for the federal government." Mr. O'Donnell added for good measure, "Ninety percent of the red states are welfare client states of the federal government." "

Does Mr O'Connell realizes that he now sounds like a pro-capitalist, pro-business, greedy, Scrooge-like Republican?

[Steve_Seattle]

In what sense do the red states not pay for the federal government and for federal programs? Don't people in those states pay federal income tax?

[Steve_Seattle]

"Given the sheer amaount of land encompassed by the red states when compared to blue states, does anybody find it surprizing that more federal money goes to reds?"

Is that even true? Isn't most federal money tied up in social security and medicare and defense? Two of those three are population-related, and the big centers of population are the blue state cities.

[Truthsayer20]

I would love to see a comparison between the taxes paid by Republican and Democratic individuals. States don't pay federal income taxes, individuals do.