Originally Posted by Blue 
Farmers et al. pay taxes RML. Everyone that puts gas or diesel in their vehicles pays taxes to use the roads. That dog don't hunt. As far as our agriculture base goes, those big old cities would starve without guaranteed source of food and fiber. Its about time someon did a study on the environmental degaradation and resource use in those big cities. If it wasn't for our infrastructure as a nation, those cities wouldn't be sustainable. They would be dependent on foreign food.
Yes, everyone pays *taxes* (though agribusiness actually gets more than it gives) ...but basically, the money, in the aggregate, flows the other way across those state lines. Without those subsidies, a state like, say, Kansas, would have to live off prices set by others. And pay prices set by others for what they need to farm. It really wouldn't work out. Texas wouldn't do so well, either, and with what oil's there, they're probably the ones the idea would be most viable for. But I believe they're still a net energy importer. At least it's no Saudi Arabia, even with all the public funds that found their way to Big Oil during the Bush administration.
People are *spoiled* by what they take for granted about the United States of America. They may resent the notion, but when it comes down to brass tacks... we need each other, and actually, there's some states the US of A would probably do better without.
But that's not how we do things, here in the United States.