What you are missing is that Kansas is not as conservative as people think it is. People also forget just how large the government school voting block is. In many counties, the school district is the largest employer.
As I’ve said before, if Americans truly wanted less spending and smaller government, we would have it. So many people are dependent on government programs, that it is almost impossible to cut anything. Redstate had a great piece about how the government is taxing the middle class to subsidize the middle class, and even though middle class people hate and resent it, they don’t see a way to survive without it. We are trapped in a spiral of increasing spending that probably won’t end until the debt hits the fan.
I think you’ve made quite a valid point. There are lots of folks who oppose wild government spending until they see it might affect *them*.
Don’t a buncha Kansas voter get direct or indirect Farm Subsidies?
There are at least 2 definitions of middle class. One defines the middle class as the professional classes and the petit bourgeois - e.g. doctors, lawyers, engineer, small business owners, et al. Another defines the middle class as those making the median national income. Current usage seems to lean towards the second definition. By that definition, the middle class (using the bottom 75% as a rough proxy) pays, at best, 13% of federal income taxes. They are not taxed to subsidize themselves - the role of Santa Claus is filled by the top 25% of income earners, who pay 87% of Federal income taxes. That is why the welfare state commands enormous majorities - 75% of the population pays next to nothing for it. From the NTU:
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
Top 1%
$343,927
36.73
Top 5%
$154,643
58.66
Top 10%
$112,124
70.47
Top 25%
$66,193
87.30
Top 50%
$32,396
97.75
Bottom 50%
<$32,396
2.25
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service