Would you support your state seceding from the United States if...?
You understood a few things would happen. For instance :
1. There would no longer be a need to spend 20% of the government budget on the military, or have to fight in wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or base troops on foreign soil. There would be no need to finance a military with a massive offensive capability; only a force strong enough to defend the state.
2. You would pay a lot less in taxes. No more Federal income tax, no Social Security or Medicare tax, or FICA tax. You would still pay your state income tax (if you have one), but you still take home more money at the same rate of pay you make now. It would be just like you got a 20% pay raise.
3. You will pay less for certain goods. When the Federal tax is removed from an item, like cigarettes, they will be cheaper to purchase, even if the state raises the state tax on them. Don't smoke? What about gas? We pay 19 cents per gallon of gas in Federal tax. Your state can raise its gas tax by 10 cents, and you would still pay less for gas.
4. Your state can negate any Federal law that the citizens of the state disagree with, whether it is legalizing drugs and gay marriage, banning NAFTA and guns, instituting card check, or banning abortion, stronger immigration enforcement, and requiring balanced budgets.
5. Your state and its taxpayers would no longer be a party to the $12 trillion debt, or the $100 trillion+ in unfunded mandates like Social Security and Medicare, so when the U.S defaults on its debt obligations, and it will, since right now paying interest on the debt is third highest on the list of our government's annual expenditures, behind only Social Security and Medicare, your state's economy won't be destroyed like the rest of America's will be.
Think of the people on the Titanic. There has to come a time when you decide to abandon ship. The longer you wait, the less likely you will survive.
JeepDiva, I am NOT advocating a dictatorship. The Confederacy wasn't a dictatorship, they were a republic, just like the U.S. And we seceded from Britain; are we a dictatorship? Pay better attention in your history class next time.
Golden, you're an idiot. Cigarettes are taxes if they are SOLD in the U.S. not grown there. I would hope my parents were smart enough to save for themselves and not need Social Security; if they didn't , why shoudl every one else pay for thier failure to plan? And why would the Russians or anyone else attack us, especially if we leave them alone? The Russians haven't attacked Japan, and they could easily conquer them? And, by the way, I graduated from public school with a 3.8 GPA and a 143 IQ.