Which States are the Biggest “Moochers”?

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From WP:

Mitt Romney’s comments on the 47 percent of Americans who make too little to pay income tax and “will vote for this president no matter what” are causing him some political problems this morning. But could they cause him any electoral problems? Is he really insulting anyone who would already be willing to vote for him?

Actually, yes. The Tax Foundation put out this helpful map of the states with the highest and lowest percentage of people who don’t file income tax returns. The biggest non-filing states are — except Florida and New Mexico — solid red states:

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  • LouisRobbins

    This article is wholly inaccurate. Total spending has nothing to do with entitlement spending.

    The state that uses the most entitlements is California. that 11.9% of the US population consumes 34.1% of all entitlement spending.

    http://www.youargue.com/index.php/55rd13st5

    Liberals like to use total spending to equate entitlement spending. It’s false and an utter lie.

  • William D Fleming

    A couple of points: Those blue states are, in general, heavily industrialized and people there have higher incomes. The red states, as a rule, are heavily dependent on agriculture and forestry for their livelihoods. In those states wages are lower and the standard of living is lower. People there fall into lower tax brackets and thus contribute less in federal taxes.
    Those agricultural products are vitally important–thus the farm bill. Yet farmers are meagerly paid. For example, farmers are currently getting about 15 cents/pound for peanuts, most of which are processed up north. Have you bought a jar of peanut butter lately?
    Before you start calling us moochers you need to look at the whole picture of productivity vs consumption. People in agricultural states, while producing vital raw materials, live more modestly, thereby consuming less of the national pie and leaving more for others.
    It seems irrational to count such things as military bases into your analysis. Those bases are there for the benefit of the country as a whole. Social security? Is that mooching?
    Finally, and very important: You are not looking at the internal demographics of the red states. Because of the electoral college system those states are depicted as 100% Republican. Actually, the vote was rather close in many of them. If you looked at those who voted Democrat, they’d have a higher percentage who are on welfare or food stamps. Look at Republican voters and they’d tend to be economically better off–no hypocrisy involved.
    So you see, it’s not quite the way you are telling it. But what the heck, have it your way. Close all those bases, end the farm program and stop eating. Stop Social Security cold turkey and end welfare. Is that what you are agitating for? You don’t sound very liberal. :-)