Libertarians for Ron Paul

Alaska: The Subsidy State

A few years ago, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma suggested taking money earmarked for a notoriously extravagant “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska and using it for reconstruction work in Louisiana. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, a fellow Republican, angrily declared, “This is the first time I have seen any attempt by any senator to treat my state…differently from any other state.”

In a tirade that included threats to behave like “a wounded bull on the floor of the Senate,” to “be taken out of here on a stretcher,” and to “resign from this body,” Stevens’ insistence that all he wanted was equal treatment for Alaska may have been the least believable thing he said. During the last four decades no one has done more than Stevens to insure that Alaska is treated unequally, receiving far more in federal spending than it pays in taxes

Jacob Sullum looks at the land of rugged individualists who insist on getting their government checks http://www.reason.com/news/show/128474.html