Red-State Socialism?

South Carolina. Home of Republican Senator Jim DeMint, who has stated publicly that, if the GOP can prevent passage of health-care reform, it will be President Obama’s “Waterloo.” Home of Republican Congressman Joe (“You Lie”) Wilson. Presumably the home of millions of “tea-baggers,” some of whom descended on the nation’s capital this past weekend to protest, among other things, paying taxes to Washington.

South Carolina. According to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan but conservative think tank, the Palmetto State receives $1.35 in federal spending for each $1.00 it pays in federal taxes. South Carolinians annually pay about $20 billion in federal taxes but receive about $27 billion in federal spending. South Carolinians are getting more than they give. They are benefiting from a redistribution of wealth. South Carolina is being subsidized by the 18 states that pay more in taxes than they receive in federal spending, 17 OF WHICH VOTED FOR THE OBAMA-BIDEN TICKET IN LAST YEAR’S ELECTION.

Kentucky. Home of conservative Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, and Republican Senator Jim Bunning, who is so far to the right that you can’t see him without high-powered binoculars. Kentucky. According to the Tax Foundation, The Bluegrass State receives $1.51 in federal spending for each $1.00 that it pays in federal taxes. The “Dark and Bloody Ground” is being subsidized to an even greater degree by the “blue” states than is South Carolina.

Oklahoma. Solidly conservative and solidly Republican. The McCain-Palin ticket carried EVERY county in Oklahoma. Sooners don’t believe in redistribution of wealth, right? Well … it depends on which way it’s being redistributed: Oklahoma receives $1.36 in federal spending for each $1.00 it pays in federal taxes. Oklahomans are also being subsidized by the “blue-staters.”

In summary, 21 of the 22 states that voted for the McCain-Palin ticket RECEIVE MORE MONEY IN FEDERAL SPENDING THAN THEY PAY IN FEDERAL TAXES: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. That reads like a “Who’s Who” of Republicanism, doesn’t it?

Republicans don’t believe in “socialism”; they don’t believe in the redistribution of wealth … unless, of course, they’re on the receiving end.