Daily Beast: Paul Begala: It's Time to Defund Kentucky.

[Bang]

Whiney coal miners.

Why should anyone give them sympathy when they knowingly put themselves in harm's way?

~Bark!

[Hubbs]

Wow, that sums it all up doesn't it.

Of course it does. Because it always does. Go ahead and name the government program that's supposed to be a bad idea. Is there a Department of Screwing Up? A Federal Agency of Tripping Over Itself? Does the Onion's National Money Hole really exist?

If we're going to limit complaints about government spending to those about programs that inherently don't make sense, we probably won't get many complaints. But that ends with the government always taking the side of expansion. So the real question is this - what would you cut? If we can accept the premise that the world will suffer if it's run by the state because we've been shown that that doesn't work, then what nice-sounding initiatives would you slice? Or do you want to argue that the government has grown to an appropriate size and that we just don't happen to have a trillion dollars to pay for it? Sooner or later the ability to borrow a trillion dollars (within an entire world with a GDP of about $54 trillion) runs out. We're lucky enough to have a currency that the rest of the world uses to back its own money. Imagine if we didn't. That sort of ability doesn't last forever, and when it runs out, it tends to happen relatively suddenly. One day, the world stops thinking that your pieces of paper are worth more than what they're printed on. I can tell you what happens then. It isn't good.

I'll borrow a phrase from JFK to illustrate my point. We don't have to make these decisions because they're easy. We have to make them because they're hard. The sad fact about our budget is that 2+2 doesn't equal 4. We have the luxury of borrowing beyond our means for as long as the world lets us. It could be two months, it could be twenty years. All I know is that when it stops, it'll stop faster than we think it will, because when you stop having an excess trillion... well, for lack of a better phrase, it sucks. It sucks as much as losing 1/54 of the entirety of the world's economy probably should.

Until then, though, you can keep buying things on that credit card.

[Thiebear]

Who would use Governmet supplied scooters as an example.

Of course you take care of the very ill and poor.

I try and draw the lne at 300% poverty. people painting with broad brush

[twa]

There are variables to consider...I would like to see more current numbers though

http://foxandhoundsdaily.com/blog/john-wildermuth/6175-donor-state-problem-not-easy-solve

Let’s talk about the payment side first. Despite its ongoing financial problems, California is still a wealthy state, with the ninth-highest household income in the nation.

With a progressive tax system, higher incomes means more tax money headed to Washington. It’s no surprise that of the 10 leading donor states in a 2006 report by the Washington-based Tax Foundation, all are in the top 17 of income states (California is number nine).

High earnings mean high wages, which translate into bigger federal payroll tax payments. And Californians also drive a lot, which means more federal gas taxes leaving the state.

On the payment side, much of the federal money California gets comes from direct payments to individuals, which means Social Security, Medi-Care, SSI disability and federal retirement pay.

And since California’s population is relatively young (fourth lowest median age in the 2000 census, behind Utah, Alaska and Idaho), that means there’s going to be a lot less of that money flowing into the state then goes to Florida, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which lead the nation in senior citizens.

The closure of California military bases and a decline in big dollar defense contracts since the early ‘90s, when the state was getting back about 92-cents on the dollar, also have trimmed federal payments to the state.

States like New Mexico and Mississippi get back more than $2 for every buck sent to D.C. If a state wants to join them on that government “pay to” list, it helps to have a low per capita income, a small population and plenty of federal installations, complete with workers getting paid by Uncle Sam.

[Larry]

Who would use Governmet supplied scooters as an example.

It's something that's easy to ridicule. (Especially since, let's face it, many of us have seen those scooters being ridden by people who's handicap appears to be that they're too overweight to walk.)

OTOH, even an easy to ridicule expense like that, I can see the wisdom behind.

If buying Grandma a government-paid-for scooter keeps her out of a government-paid-for nursing home for, say, a year, then for gawds sake, buy the lady a scooter.

[Thiebear]

i have no issue with means testing: I get mad when i get no stimulus money 3 times and others get 600 ea.

and i make too much to get out from under my stupid crack house. But my girls should not pay 4trillion for 3 years of average.