Who is Sucking on the Federal Teat?

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punkt

Much of the reason, at least in the Rocky Mountain area, is that the Federal Government owns the majority of the land and the people/businesses in those states are not able to use that land profitably.

That said, I tend to agree with you on this one. However, I am a bit surprised at your stand on this one. As a 'tax the rich' liberal, I would have expected you to applaud the higher taxation of the rich states to benefit the poor states.

There is another interesting point to note. Take your link and change the "03" to "99" to pull up the 1999 data and compare the numbers. In 1999, the feds collected $499,510 million at $1835 per capita as 6.8% of personal income. In 2003 the feds collected $546,694 million at $1884 per capita as 6.2% of personal income. What are these numbers telling you? AFTER tax cuts, personal income (pre-tax) went up 12.6%, average tax rates went down 0.6%, and the federal collection still went up 9.4% on personal income. The tax cuts generated more federal money from personal income. I would think you would be pleased.

Lol, no tax the rich liberal here. I'm a fiscal conservative with a libertarian bent. If anything, I'm an exile from the GOP.

The 2003/1999 contrast also doesn't surprise me. Dynamic tax revenue is a reality, and the proper balance of tax cuts can cause less of a decrease in revenue than some would imagine. An article prior to the cuts on dynamic tax revenue- http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/CDA99-02.cfm. But note also a 9.8% inflation over that period as calculated by PPI, or 10.1 CPI--making the contrast less exciting. http://www.gpec.org/InfoCenter/Topics/Economy/USInflation.html. Also, could you provide a source--I'm having a mother of a time trying to find total, comparative US Tax revenue figures (you would think it would be easy).

Anyway, the point of this thread was to: (a) challenge current stereotypes about entitlements, and (b) chastise the GOP for their spending habits. As I've said before, tax cuts are only one part of a package in a truly fiscally conservative policy. The gains through dynamic tax revenues are easily offset (more than offset!) by interest on the deficit, a likely devaluation of the dollar due to deficits, and tighter monetary policy to control inflation. Thus, we will probably end up paying more taxes in the future than what we deferred in the present, even if the Fed. Gov. is able to prudently pare down its spending.

Just as a heads up: I'm out for a bit. If anyone wants to argue on this thread, give me a while to respond. Have a good weekend, all.

I used your link as my source, just changed the year.