[quote=outtamojo][quote=FlyerInHi]If those Republicans in TX, AK, Ok… are so wealthy, then WTF are they angry about? Go spend some of that money and enjoy.[/quote]
Republicans I know are most angry when they see someone receiving something “undeserved” or they didn’t “work” for.[/quote]This is somewhat true, but “bible belt dwellers” have compassion and many biz owners there are heavily into local philanthropy. If you remember, Houston took in tens of thousands of Katrina victims with hardly anything more than the clothes on their backs. Social services in TX are nowhere near as generous as they are in CA (except for maybe food aid, which is run by the Dept of Agriculture). Their “culture” is that you give a person a fishing pole and teach them how to fish. This refugee group bussed in from the state of LA was given all the basics (with Federal funds but the TX govm’t still had to properly administer all the programs it paid for), given vocational training and placed in jobs. These opportunities never existed for them back in New Orleans and they were used to being “on the dole” back home … for generations. Now, over 10 years later, this group is, of course, spread out and far more self-sufficient than they ever would have been been had Hurricane Katrina never happened. A lot of the kids ended up graduating from college which never, ever would have happened had they stayed back home.
Biz owners in this region have the same concerns as biz owners in CA, and yes, some ARE angry about certain issues and rightly so. My dad had a medium sized business which operated in 7 states and the bureaucracy he had to deal with was mind-numbing. His biggest concerns were liability for injury, being gouged by insurance companies, bureaucratic red tape to get from point A to point B and back and his state taxing entity with their hands constantly outstretched, whom he called, “corrupt.” Sound familiar? He also was less than pleased with IRS rules and policies and felt some of them made no sense. And the list goes on. It isn’t any different than how a small/med-sized biz owner feels in SD.
Joe and Jane 6p in the bible belt are angry about Obamacare …. as I am. They’re forced to pay money for premiums every month where no nearby providers exist for a large portion of the population. Especially those small town and rural dwellers who have no providers within 50 miles of where they live. And a few carriers who signed up with their exchange(s) in 2013 have already gone bankrupt, thus, there are even less insurance companies today for that populace to sign up with. In addition, TX and OK did not agree to Medicaid expansion, which left a lot of moderate-income families feeling too poor to be able to pay (even a portion of) a health insurance premium every month and too “rich” for Medicaid.
