Many people get excited when it is reported that "we" are getting some "federal funds." But do we consider where "federal funds" come from?
There was a recent news report from The Brookings Institution in Washington that people in the Chattanooga area got "federal funds" in 2008 equivalent to $1,480 for each local resident.
Who paid for that?
Most of the money came from federal taxes -- that Chattanooga area people and others throughout our country -- had to pay. But that wasn't enough.
The federal government had to borrow the rest.
The national debt is around $12.5 trillion -- and growing fast. "We" have to pay taxes to cover the cost of interest, as the debt grows.
There's no such thing as "free federal funds."
In the redistribution of wealth catagory,red states are,for the most part,net beneficiaries from the blue states.
What irony,to have the poor Democrats giving to the rich Republicans,who then complain about redistribution of wealth.
Who is pulling up whom by whose bootstraps?
The states better be glad that the federal govt can print money in hard times like these. Most states are up to their necks now trying to balance their budgets. Without some federal help they would be going down for the third time. Look at our own state; we've resorted to such things as a tax on free hotel breakfasts.
What a bunch of crock par usual. The Democratic, Blue, Liberal-Progressive wealthy states are failing, due to their never-works Lib-Prog policies, waste, fraud and spend and spend policies. Red, fiscally conservative states like North Dakota and Texas et al are holding their own and creating more jobs than most Blue states are. Even poor ole Tennessee had a better bottom line last year than corrupt California or New York did. And more jobs.
We need to print money to stay afloat? What is wrong with that picture and that mindset?
Poor Dems, rich Repubs? Who is rich in the Blue states? Who is poor in the Red states? Who takes more from Americans and gives less to the poor? Easy, all studies/data show the answer is the Lib-Progs in Red & Blue states do. Big newsflash. And the Progressive beat goes on and on-in 2010.
The fact remains that per capita out flows from Washington are tilted toward red states,redistributing wealth.
You STILL have no dog in the fight, nucanuck, living in Canada as you do.
Of course you and alprova support the socialist state up there. That's who and what Canada is, cradle-to-grave...and you love it.
He has no dog in the fight because he's a self-described Progressive-the very same in Gov't now and the spawn of those who have tried to kill our country for at least the last 100 years. The "outflows" from Progressive-led Washington goes to California, in the tens of billions of dollars and to their various porky-pie projects. When did poor states like Kentucky and Tennessee receive that much money (or "printed money") in one outflow? "Per capita" is a moot point when your people are suffering due to stupid, wrong-headed Progressive policies.
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein Sounds like our Gov-cronies in Washington now-and around the world-in the worst Regimes on earth.
First rolando,I still have business interests in the US and am a proud American. Second,as you well know,Canada is a strongly capitalist country,but with a more evolved approach to building and maintaining societal health. The Canadian system is working,the US system is failing. It hurts me to say that,but that is how most people see it.
Canadian businesses excel in world markets.Canada has low debt,keeps deficits under control and has been a model of fiscal restraint. What about that makes Canada a socialist state? Does a fair universal health care system twist your knickers to the degree that you lose sight of the bigger picture?
How much of Tennessee's spending is a direct result of federal mandates?
Be ignorant but don't spread your ignorance. You know nothing of Canada's history or what it has been like to live there in the past 4 or 5 decades. Neither do any of the immigrants who immigrated in the last 20-30 years to Canada, particularly to Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Just like in many US states, the immigrants in the last two decades did not immigrate there to assimilate as Canadians but to bring their relatives and make alot of money, achieve Gov't positions, etc. Your historical, factual sense is way off and way ignorant. Since when did you poll the Canadian populace? Oh, you believe the State controlled media or Gov't "figures"? Figures.
You live in a Socialist-Progressive State, you are a Progressive Elitist thinker. Why should we believe you? Especially since I have more than 4 decades in that country and you have three years (in a wealthy enclave of the country to boot)? Canada uses quasi-free-market principles now, due to finally, after decades of Liberal governing, some of the people waking up and sensibly voting in the present Conservative, Stephen Harper. His people saw the Socialist/Nationalist Health Dept and Federal Gov't was furthering the impoverishment of the Canadian poor and middle class. They borrowed ideas from the US free market system. Simple as that. Harper has been a boon to the country-the first in long-term memory.
Their economy is doing better now due to two major happenings: The US-given NAFTA goodies and the sale of their natural resources (water and gas/oil) to OPEC starved countries, like us, when the cost of a barrel of oil sky-rocketed a few years ago. Canada has immense natural resources (water, lumber and oil) and has been allowed to sell them and create a boon for the country. Ironically, the very same thing we used to do, until more Progressives started infiltrating and influencing our Gov't.
So, like Canadians and Europeans and many others, we'll just have to learn our lessons, too little, too late. If we had stayed the more conservative course, we wouldn't be in such dire straits today. THAT is the truth, the facts and the proof of History.
Unlike the elitist ideology of Claptrap written by the above scoundrel. Meant to disseminate and propagate the wrong information for the wrong reasons, that being a very wrong Agenda. The sad truth is that many, many Canadians do NOT live the ideal lifestyle of the rich and the elite, not even a decent middle class lifestyle. That is the fiction of the Michael Moores, the nucanucks, the Progressives everywhere and those who want to control more of our lives and freedom, not less.
canary,when you learn to interpret the bits and pieces of information you have assembled,you may move up from the fool catagory. Until then,have fun with your foolishness.
Wow, nice to see Canary still beating the drum of the failed conservative philosophies of the previous administration. Heck, even Alan Greenspan, that great disciple of Ayn Rand, finally admitted the errors of a unregulated free market. Does anyone seriously believe that letting the banks, insurance, pharma, and health care providers continue their ruinous behavior is in the best interest of the nation? How many instances does a person need to provide to show that their type of behavior has historically resulted in disaster to the economy and its citizens. Regulation and accountability are the only tools to prevent this behavior.
Canary seems to feel that denying Americans the protection, affordability, and access to health care is something that we should be proud of as opposed to the rest of the industrialized world which feels an obligation to provide its citizens with the affordable means to promoting its health. I say that as the most Christianized country in the world and a country historically at the forefront of concern for its citizens, that we have failed our citizens in regards to health care. As regards health care, we have allowed other countries to take up the mantle of concern for the well being of its citizens while we continue to allow the grubbing of the almighty dollar to dictate who lives, dies, or bankrupts in our health care system.
Persons like Canary offer no solutions, only the same tired rhetoric of maintaining the status quo. Like Bush, who was famous for his lack of "intellectual curiosity", it is much more comforting to retreat into the cocoon of the status quo, which requires no pursuit of the possibilities of improvement of a broken system. Failure to question the status quo results in intellectual cowardice.
Both parties have refused to address the fact that as much as one fourth of our health care system is accountable by fraud. This has to be addressed as well as the reforms being proposed now. These issues will not be addressed by retreating into the status quo but by the courage of confronting this problem.
As for Canary's rants about the Canadian system here is some info about some of the myths... http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mythbusting-canadian-health-care-part-i
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mythbusting-canadian-healthcare-part-ii-debunking-free-marketeers
Its time to confront this issue and look for the possibilities Americans have been famous for throughout our history.
"Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?" -George Bernard Shaw
Keep on with the insults schmucks, that's all you've got. We and the Good Lord know who the foolish and ignorant are and who has the facts of history and experience and who doesn't. Clue, it's not you guys. The really funny, pathetic tragi-comedy of your posts are that they are continually proven wrong by events, history and the here and now of Reality. Something and some place you most definitely do not live in.
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