|  As of 7 am this morning, well over 26,000 people had signed on to the petition asking the Obama administration to "Peacefully grant the State of Alabama to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government."
As we reported a couple of days ago, it appears that almost half of the signatures are still coming from people in other states. Not clear whether they're lending moral support to Alabama's secession effort, or just expressing a desire to be rid of us. As Dana Milbank points out in The Confederacy of Takers, in some respects the rest of the Union would might more perfect without Alabama and the other Old Confederacy states ... They should be careful about what they wish for. It would be excellent financial news for those of us left behind if Obama were to grant a number of the rebel states their wish “to withdraw from the United States and create [their] own NEW government” (the petitions emphasize “new” by capitalizing it). Red states receive, on average, far more from the federal government in expenditures than they pay in taxes. The balance is the opposite in blue states. The secession petitions, therefore, give the opportunity to create what would be, in a fiscal sense, a far more perfect union.
And in case you're wondering, topping the 25,000 signature mark does NOT automatically allow Alabama to secede, it just requires the White House to respond to the petition. Tempting as it might be to balance the federal budget by jettisoning the Confederacy of Takers, I'm pretty sure the Obama administration's response will boil down to these five words: We're all in this together. Still. |
