An economist, Dakinikat of Skydancing, writes a well-researched, impassioned piece about ALEC. She targets Dickensian creeps who want to get rid of state income taxes by raising sales taxes, which places more of the burden on the poor. The most quotable passages:
"The one thing that I've really noticed about these granny starvers is that they could all play the part of some creepy Shakespearean villain. Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Scott look the original templates for those lean, hungry men. They also remind me of the creeps that show up in the Dickensian tales. ...actual results are the opposite of the ALEC claim. The more a state's policies mirrored the ALEC low-tax/regressive taxation/limited government agenda, the lower the median family income; this is true for every year from 2007 through 2011. . . . The relationship is not only negative each year, it also became worse over time: the better a state did on the ALEC Outlook Ranking, the more family income declined from 2007 to 2011. . . . The more a state followed the Alec-Laffer policies, the higher its poverty rate, every year from 2007 to 2011. What really makes this so shameful is that these Banana Republic-style agendas are being subsidized by Blue States. There are very few economically viable Red States in our country. They could not exist on their own as they are in worse shape than countries like Greece. They stymie policy at the national level and continue to subsidize their backward growth agendas with federal monies. However, they are not beyond complaining about government spending while sucking it in like a big ol' black hole." Will these results cause ALEC proponents to rethink? No. Libertarians would rather keep reaching into an empty hat for a theoretical rabbit than admit they are wrong. Even serial killer enthusiast Ayn Rand might have been honest enough to admit that the blue states are "producer" states while the red states are "leech" states. http://skydancingblog.com/2013/01/11/friday-reads-red-state-hell-realm-edition/
