Steve Scalise Doesn’t Want To Bail Out Liberal States With Taxpayer Money That’s Mostly Theirs

Liberal states aren't the deadbeats here.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants “blue" states to go bankrupt because he's a vengeful POS. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise defended McConnell's attack on his fellow Americans during an appearance this week on “The Hugh Hewitt Show." Most of what he said was stupid when it wasn't just a flat-out lie.

SCALISE: There's, like [Hewitt] mentioned, trillions of dollars that have been passed, and only aliberal statethat had already had their own problems prior to COVID-19 would be talking about more money as Congress is on the verge of voting for another bill that had over $400 billion in aid to our small businesses who are struggling, to hospitals who are struggling.

First place, it's gross to talk about “liberal" or “conservative" states during a national crisis. Everyone is hurting. It's not just “liberal" states or “liberal" governors asking for help right now. Scalise goes on to call out deadbeat states such as California, where 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies are based; New York, the home of Wall Street; and New Jersey, which has a lot going for it.

SCALISE: And so, we need to be doing all this at the same time, but not talking about bailing out states that already had problems before COVID-19 because they were mismanaged, because they have high taxes. You know, you go look at those states you mentioned — California, New York, New Jersey — people were leaving those states in droves, businesses were leaving those states in droves prior to this.

Yes, New York state reported a net migration loss of almost 135,000 people in 2019, but people weren't leaving because of high taxes. The housing market and cost of living are absurdly expensive. Americans are leaving the Bay Area for similar reasons. Lack of affordable housing and stagnant wages for working people are what's squeezing folks out of major cities in “liberal" states.

If Scalise wants to slam California, New York, and New Jersey for their “high taxes," he should also note that they contribute a significant amount of money to the federal government.

MoneyRates 

These are all “blue states" except for Texas, Florida, and (temporarily) Pennsylvania. They keep the country running and deserve some consideration when their economies are devastated by a once-in-several-lifetimes pandemic. But Scalise wanted to get all “The Ants and the Grasshopper" on the “liberal" states.

SCALISE: Hopefully, they'll learn lessons as they're working to recover and get their economies back.

Apparently, the moral of the COVID-19 fable is that states shouldn't overextend themselves with pension plans. People can always retire after they die. They should instead prepare for the inevitable “rainy day" of an idiot president — who most of their residents didn't vote for — shooting them in the leg with his criminally negligent response to a novel coronavirus outbreak.

SCALISE: After this tragedy, you don't want to see anybody have to go bankrupt, but give them the tools to hang on, and the tools to hang on are not going to be bailouts from the federal government, it's going to be realigning and fixing the problems that you had prior to COVID-19 that were creating millions of people wanting to leave your state.

Scalise is from Louisiana, which in 2017 received $1.52 for every $1 paid to the federal government, for a “bailout" of $17 billion. New York pays the most in taxes but receives the least back from the federal government. California and New Jersey are also "donor states." Although Louisiana ended 2019 with a surplus of $500 million, it has a poverty rate of almost 20 percent. That's a pre-COVID-19 problem Scalise might want to help address.

[ Bisnow / American Independent ]

 Follow Stephen Robinson on  Twitter.  

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .

Yr Wonkette is supported entirely by reader donations. Please click the clickie, if you are able!