Oh my brothers, the most effective offense against conservatives..

[skooooo]

Is the red state = welfare state.

It positively sends them into a tizzy when you start using all of their rhetoric against those conservative states which only take from the American economy.

We cannot forget this. Try it out. The facts are on your side.

[PSU84]

1. Red State Welfare Doumented Here:

From "The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America" by John Sperling.

Retronomics is supported by two pillars:
(1) the extraction industries—agriculture, oil, gas, metals mining, and forestry—and (2) national political power based on the alliance between the Southern, Prairie, and Rocky Mountain states. This political power ensures a flow of subsidies for the extraction industries and the siting of federal facilities—military bases, shipyards, atomic energy, and military testing grounds—that in turn ensure a flow of payments for personnel and maintenance. Altogether,
the excess of these payments over tax revenue collected amounted to just under a trillion dollars in the decade 1991–2001. They constitute welfare for the rich and middle class in Retro America, while Republicans do everything in their power to eliminate
welfare for the Metro poor. In short, Retro America prospers because it is on the dole and aggressively anti-Metro.

The Metro winners are Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. The Retro losers are Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. The 30 winners win largely because they receive subsidies
for their extraction industries and/or funding for national defense, including atomic energy. Among the Metro winners, Arizona and Florida receive agricultural subsidies but also significant Social Security payments. Alabama was first in the winner column,
taking in more than $100 billion beyond what it paid in taxes in the decade. Texas was the only Retro state that was a significant loser, but its losses were dwarfed by the big Metro losers. California led the way, paying $253.5 billion over what it received in subsidies. But California was not alone as a big loser: Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and even little Connecticut had losses of more than a hundred billion dollars.

http://www.retrovsmetro.org/downloads/chpfull/ch2_full ....

[MrTriumph]

8. Revenue sharing

Does anyone remember the controversy when Nixon instituted revenue sharing?

If I remember correctly, the congress largely went along because it rendered more power to Washington. Seems like progressives liked it because it could shift money into poorer parts of the country.

[aden_nak]

2. Federal subsidizing of Blue paychecks for Red welfare?

It's the truth, mathematically. Statistically. Maybe we should cut them off for a year and see how quickly they clamor for a more socialist government. Nix that farm subsidy money, for example.

Yeah, I'm bitter. ;)

[skooooo]

4. Blue states need to start working to keep their own money...

How to do this? Not sure.

[truhavoc]

3. Damn I should turn THAT into a bumper sticker

[skooooo]

5. Yep..I wish DU would sell stuff like that...

[truhavoc]

9. just made it

check out

www.cafepress.com/takebackus2008

[vademocrat]

11. I like your Jefferson quote shirt! Here's another good TJ quote

from a letter he wrote in 1798:

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it's true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt......If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

Thomas Jefferson

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. This helps too:

-----------------------------------------------------------
FIGHT! Take this country back one town and state at a time!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[MI Cherie]

7. Stop tax redistribution to red welfare states

http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxingspending.html

I'm tired of having to pay higher property taxes, suffer school budget cuts, endure poor condition roads, etc. just so we can send them more money than we get to use in our own state.

I'm sick of subsidizing people who take tax dollars from others and don't want to pay their fair share or live within their means!

[info being]

10. self-delete