Blue states should thank Bush for making them richer

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Some quick advice for the blue states: Take the money and run.

Yes, yes, President Bush will continue irritating you on the environment, health care and a thousand other big and small issues. But he did do one very nice thing for the states that preferred Kerry: He made them richer.

And he wants to make them richer still. The enduring theme of Bush tax policy has been to ease the burden on the well-to-do. The big incomes cluster in blue America: the West Coast, Northeast and upper Great Lakes regions. And that's where the tax cuts have spread most of their fairy dust.

The talk now is of a flat tax or a national sales tax. Either one would take additional pressure off the income tax. That means the middle class would carry more of the load.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002086570_harrop10.html

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I will gladly take a 10% pay hike to endure brutal fascism.

Who wouldn't???

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. You mean pay cut, or tax hike. But, yes.

[Sugarbleus]

3. The cost of living out here in the west is unfreaking believable and

I got $O back in taxes. I'm still stunned to learn so many other states don't pay certain income taxs!

[Go_andbe]

4. I think I pay more than my share of taxes

[newyawker99]

5. Hi Go_andbe!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[HuckleB]

6. This assumes that we're as stupid and callous as Bush.

Apparently this author forgot that part of the equation. Nevermind that Bush continues to fail to provide the necessary money for "no child left behind" and for "homeland security," among other things in every blue state.

I know this much, Oregon and Washington had two of the best economies in the US under Clinton, and they've been just about the worst economies in the US under Bush. So, please don't talk about how he's making us rich. Sheesh.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. I think her point is do like California is doing with stem cell research

If the Feds don't deal with certain issues then deal with them locally.

[HuckleB]

8. Great. Then let's just break away from the Union.

Oregon's been putting more into the Federal budget than it gets back for most of time eternal, after all. Now that would offer up a savings for folks in my blue state!

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HuckleB]

12. What good would that do?

That means spending our resources on court battles. Screw it. I'm tired of giving and giving and giving to the Union, only to be spat upon by our fellow citizens. It's time for a new nation to arise!

:)

[GOING for 2006]

23. Are you saying the Federal government is not funding stem research?

[salin]

10. Don't many blue states get less back from the govt than what they

pay? And subsidize many red states along the way? Perhaps the money that gets paid to the feds through fed taxes should be returned in form of services to those who pay them.

[GOING for 2006]

22. I thought one of reasons for the tax system

was to reasonably re-distribute wealth.

A progressive tax taxes the wealthy more severely than the the poorer.
Since there are more rich people in the Blue states, a progressive tax would tax the people in that Blue state more severely

[new.jerusalem]

11. why I moved from a "blue state" to a "red state"

I was living and working in LA and just doing fine. But I could never save enough money for a home, and I was spending at least two hours on the freeway and coming exhausted.

Weekends were for recovering from the weekly grind. I was the potato couch from hell.

Most days I never saw a blue sky, and I was becoming a stranger to my own kids.

So I moved to the Midwest. Took a big pay cut.
But you know what, somehow someway I can afford a house now. In fact, most people out here can afford a house. And if you do have to rent, Its not some shoebox in some crappy neighborhood. People care about the neighborhoods for the most part, so in most cases, every place is pretty nice.

I commute 20 minutes to work. I don't have to take the freeway (there is one, btw) It's just nicer to take the roads. Nicer view.

My kids are better schools, because the teachers really care about their educaction. And since the parents have more time to spend time with their kids, The kids care more about their education.

Back in the southland my kids always had to worry about people ripping off their stuff. Out here Its me who has to worry about my kids leaving their stuff all over the place. My son left his brand new bike just lying on the front yard last night, and it still sitting there. Last week he left it leaning against a tree in the park for a week.

You may think you are smarter living out there on the coast, but I think I am wiser for living Inland

----former Coastal Road Warrior

[HuckleB]

13. Hmm.

That's got nothing to do with Red and Blue states. Try Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, and on and on. You'd spend your weekends in the same state of mind as you did in LA.

[GOING for 2006]

24. not me.

Atlanta has LA beat all to hell

[CitizenRob]

14. Major cities...

Major cities have more crime. That's not a blue/red difference. Granted most major cities are in blue states... but there are some in the red states which have just as big a problem.

Mind if I ask where in the midwest? Where you're living sounds nice. I was thinking about minneapolis. I'm going out there in midwinter to find out what it's like to be cold. (I grew up in LA.)

[we.can.do.better]

15. I think

the guy is from around Kansas.

They get a lot less winter there. Whats the joke about MN?
6 months of winter and 6 months of bad sledding.

Really, I've got relatives in the Midwest, and its not a bad way to live. Rural or City. But I committed to stay where I am for a while

[we.can.do.better]

16. I think..

therefore I am?

I kinda think he's from Kansas.

No I meant to say in my last post, he had another post talking about the Frank Rich Kansas book.

He didn't like it. I don't know if he would feel that angry from a MN point of view. Frank Rich kindof looks down on the Kansasans, but shares the MN values as expressed by Garrison Keillor.

[we.can.do.better]

17. duplicate post

you've already read what I have to say if you got down this far.

My post says 5pm! but I am not really from the future. It is actually 9:30 am here. I don't know how they get 5pm out of that, but I'm ready to go home and beat the freeway rush!

[CitizenRob]

18. Woah...

behold! The future!

[TO Kid]

19. Minneapolis is pretty good place

Never lived there but regularly go there on business. January and February are pure hell weatherwis but that isn't much different from Toronto (although it would probably be quite a shock to a Californian). Housing there is rather pricey (again like Toronto) but the general impression I get from my colleagues there is that life is pretty good.

[GOING for 2006]

20. Minneapolis is OK

if you like the cold. If you go south, it gets warmer

[GOING for 2006]

21. Not in my experience

San Francisco seems to have less of a problem.

As a general rule, I feel safer walking around late at night in Oklahoma than in Los Angeles.

[CitizenRob]

25. LOL! Oh that's funny!

You claim to have "walked" in Los Angeles! HAHA! Oh you're killing me! Nobody walks in LA, there's even a song by that very name.

Joking aside, I said Major cities. Oklahoma has no major cities (one million plus.) (SF counts despite the city proper only having 800,000 residents because the bay area as a whole has 3-5 million residents. )

-Rob