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But I doubt that it will be. The country needs revolutionary changes in tax and spending policy. I favor a tax and spending system where the federal government takes responsibility for only four areas, national defense, immigration enforcement, racial/ethnic equal rights enforcement, the Federal Reserve. The rest and the tax money to support them stay with states. So states would be responsible for education, elder citizen care, highway construction, water quality, et al. What such a system would do is send tax money back to states that generate it and starve states that do not tax properly. I live in a high income blue state. 27% of the tax money that is generated in my state goes to support other states. I would prefer that my state contribute 10% to pay for the four federal responsibilities and keep the other 17% to deal with state issues. For my state, that 17% works out to tens of billions of dollars annually. Such a tax policy will strip the facade from red state politicians and force them to either educate and tax their citizens properly or let their states sink into extreme poverty and ignorance. States like Mississippi, Oklahoma and Alabama have societies that are supported by tax dollars collected in my state and blue states like New York, California and Illinois, yet the citizens of those states view themselves as superior to citizens of blue states while they send poorly educated right wing politicians to Washington to make federal policy that ends up affecting my state. ENOUGH!!! If citizens in Mississippi prefer hanging on to polluting energy sources and foul water, I say let them have it, just not with my tax dollars. My preference is for clean energy development and application that my blue state is moving full tilt toward. My preference is for high environmental quality and safe drinking water. I want my tax dollars to be directed toward what is important to me and the majority of citizens in my state.
Democratic politicians like Nancy Pelosi just do not get it. Pelosi launched an assault on the debt commission's preliminary findings. Pelosi sees an assault on social programs rather than an opportunity to give newly elected Jerry Brown some of the 46% of California state citizen's federal taxes that Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, et al spends on their societies BACK. A 10% return of Californian's federal taxes will allow that state to wipe out it's massive state budget deficit virtually overnight, folks, we are talking many billions of dollars per year coming back to California for CALIFORNIA to spend as it sees fit. What Pelosi should do is work to craft legislation that gives states back federal income taxes while cutting federal aid to those states. Blue states get little to no meaningful federal aid, so the net will be vastly positive for a blue state. Pelosi would rather continue the practice of attending a ribbon cutting for one statewide $300,000 senior health clinic while her state sends $millions to red states to spend during the minutes that Pelosi speaks and cuts the ribbon. Directing tax policy properly will have the effect of choking red states, forcing their politicians to be accountable and it WILL lead to the election of moderate and progressive democrats in those states. One only has to look at North Carolina after that state became a high paying jobs technology center via it's research triangle region. There have been setbacks, but North Carolina is becoming progressively bluer. The only democratic politician that I have listened to in the last days since the election that gets it is the newly elected Marci Kaptur. She was re-elected after a tough race. Kaptur recognizes the opportunities in the tea party push to reduce federal spending and give more control to states, if that push is directed right by smart democrats, it will accomplish the changes that I laid out above.
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