Originally posted by whodey
The spending aspect has to be addressed before the tax aspect. In fact, you could double the taxes and triple the spending you will be in worse shape than you are today.
Of course, the biggest offenders in terms of spending are Medicare, Social Security, Defense, and interest on the debt. In terms of interest on the debt, nothing can be done except lower ...[text shortened]... e bleeding us dry. The FDR vision of housing entitlements is dead, or at least, should be dead.
I don't know where I sit when it comes to states rights at least at the margin. Should the federal govt have a little more power or a little less? I'm not sure, though I suspect the answer is both if you breakdown issues individually.
While I don't have a strong conviction about the status quo, I do want to encourage caution about the idea that states should a LOT more independent both in terms of legal fiscal budgets. There are several good reasons for pooling and redistributing resources from the states through the federal government. First, interstate activity has steadily increased over the country's history. Although rules can be easily made within the confines of a state, restricting human activities to state lines is far more difficult. Whether it be law concerning purchases of firearms or firecrackers, prostitution, tobacco, abortion, marriage licenses, or farm produce, there are often spillover effects from one state to another. For instance if one state, outlaws cocaine use in an effort to reduce the social burden of drug addiction, but the neoghboring state legalizes it, then it stands to reason that the first state will suffer the costs of drug addiction despite its efforts to prevent drug abuse.
To the extent that each state cannot completely secure its borders there will be need for some sort of larger regulator, and thus for financing for that regulator.
Second, as US citizens we may all have a interest in the conditions of states other than our state of residency. Care for national lands, military bases, roads and airports, or even schools and universities affect all of us to some degree. Although these interests are fairly well spread across states, revenue is not. States like CA, NY, FL, and TX will have far greater means than places like WY, ND, and WV. Poorer states would struggle
to maintain their responsibilities to the nation and still focus on their primary task: the welfare of their residents. When I'm back in ID and I hear people fuss about how they wish big government would leave ID alone, if I feel especially snarky I point out that ID takes far more in federal money than it pays out in federal taxes. They may want more independence but I'm not sure that they are willing to pay for it.
Here's a great link to tables showing federal money received vs federal taxes paid by state from 1981-2005. The biggest taker has been NM. The smallest ones tend to be in the Northeast. Thanks, New Jersey. 🙂
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html