We have entered the “post-truth” era. Our country is partitioned into reds and blues. The Tea Party constituency is mostly identified with red states. In case you’ve forgotten, the Tea Party took its name as an acronym for “Taxed Enough already.” But it’s the blue states that bear the greater burden of taxation.
If you are a taxpayer in New Jersey, for every dollar you pay in federal taxes, 61 cents in benefits and other federal spending comes back to your state. For the same dollar of taxes Wyoming spends, it gets $1.11 back. Under our electoral-college system a vote in Wyoming is worth three votes in New Jersey. The New York Times has done a state-by-state analysis. The results: in general, much of the taxes paid by the blue states is transferred to the red states. The real Tea Party-ers live in the blue states, mostly on the Pacific Coast and the Northeast.
On a related subject, House Majority Leader, Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy, representing the deep-red district of Tulare and Kern counties in California, won reelection with
70% of the votes. McCarthy is an outspoken foe of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, and Medicare. In his district, roughly half the people receive health care through Medi-Cal. Another 29,000 purchased coverage through Covered California, the insurance exchange subsidized by the federal government. They sent a loud message to lawmakers, “Take away our health coverage.”
Anti-intellect administrations strangled education starting years back and we’re reaping what they have sown…low taxes = lousy schools, poorly paid teachers and dumbed down kids. Dumbed down kids become adults who believe most anything that doesn’t require critical thinking.