State's most conservative county uses much cash (California)

[Neecy]

The ones who want their taxes cut the most always seem to be the ones who leech off of *our* tax money.

Sprawling across the northeastern corner of California, this huge, thickly forested county with more cows than people epitomizes the Western frontier - and what seems to be a two-faced political ideology.

Modoc has the highest Republican registration of any county in California, it unfailingly elects anti-tax Republicans to office, and the vote here against last month's ballot measure that would have raised a variety of taxes was one of the most lopsided in the state. And yet, per capita, Modoc County gets more state taxpayer dollars than all but one of California's 58 counties.

The prevailing attitude among the right-wing ranchers and modern hippies who define Modoc County is of fierce self-reliance - but more people here than just about anywhere else depend on welfare checks of some kind to get by.

So with state Republicans blocking new taxes and insisting on deep cuts in taxpayer-funded services, does that make this most solid of GOP bases politically conflicted? Or, worse, just plain ignorant?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/30/MNUU18ETCF.DTL

[hunter]

1. Easy. It's not welfare if it's white, wealthy, and/or Republican.

:shrug:

[Gold Metal Flake]

2. It's OK if you're a Republican

As usual.

[anigbrowl]

3. This is one of the best articles SF Chronicle has published in a while

Pity they didn't think of this before the election or even last year.