Last Call

Here's everything you need to know about this little Forbes article stating that red states are doing so much better financially than blue ones (and that son we'll all be living in red states):

One reason for that shift is that red states are taking fiscal responsibility while many blue states aren’t—and it shows.  The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a bipartisan association of conservative state legislators, recently released its fourth edition of “Rich States, Poor States,” by the well-known Reagan economist Arthur B. Laffer, the Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore, and Jonathan Williams of ALEC.

The study looks at factors that affect state prosperity and economic outlook, such as tax burdens and population change.  What’s clear is that red or red-leaning states dominate the top positions while blue states have the dubious distinction of dragging in last.  In the economic outlook section, for example, the top 20 states are bright red or lean red, while eight out of the bottom 10 are very blue: New York, Vermont, California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon and Rhode Island.

Now, any economic study by Art Laffer and the WSJ is going to be so much baloney, but throw in the lovely folks from ALEC and you have the trifecta.

If you want to know how Republicans were able to take over at the state level so efficiently and why they are able to flood slate legislatures with carbon copy culture war legislation (like scores of abortion bills), you can trace it back to ALEC, the American Legislative Executive Council.  Over at Crooks & Liars, Karoli flags down what this odious group does:  it's who is writing these bills and giving them to Republican lawmakers in order to carry out their orders.

Surprise, an ALEC study finds that voters should elect Tea Party nutjob Republicans to slash social spending, privatize education and prisons, dismantle unions, lay off thousands of government employees, close state regulatory agencies and pass culture war legislation.  Next you'll tell me the sun is hot and made of fusion.

ALEC is made up of heavy corporate hitters, right wing think tanks, and industry lobbyist groups.  They're spewing out boilerplate whackjob legislation to Republicans all over the country, starting with the epidemic of union-breaking regulations and anti-immigration laws this year.  This is the group the GOP is using to take over your state, folks.  In many cases 2010 was wildly successful for them, and unless that's reversed this year and next, you'll see more and more Republicans at the state level bringing ALEC-spawned legislation to all 50 states.


So yes, this study should be taken with a complete salt mine.  It's directly from the bad guys, folks.  Don't believe it for a second and most importantly educate yourself about ALEC and what they are doing in YOUR state.  Then vote their proxies OUT.