The post Red Versus Blue State Debates Are Instructive And We Need More Of Them appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Florida Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis (L) and California Governor Gavin … [+] Newsom (R) appear on screen from the press room during a debate held by Fox News, in Alpharetta, Georgia, on November 30, 2023. (Photo by Christian MONTERROSA / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images On the last night of November, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and California Gavin Newsom (D) went down to Georgia for a televised debate moderated by Fox News host Sean Hannity, who billed the event as The Great Red Versus Blue State Debate. As the chief executives of what many consider to be the quintessential red and blue states, one didn’t have to be a supporter of Newsom or DeSantis to find this contest of ideas and governing philosophies to be instructive. The data-based framing of Hannity’s questions posed a challenge for Governor Newsom early on. In fact, less than 12 minutes into the debate, Newsom was making false claims about California’s relative tax burden. Newsom said during the debate that “it’s a lie that California is high tax,” and then proceeded to claim that lower and middle income households face lower tax burdens in California. The data, however, shows Newsom’s claim to be false. The Tax Foundation recently released the new data on per capita state and local tax collections. Those numbers show that in California, per capita state and local tax collections were $9,175 in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, whereas in Florida that figure is $4,405. The fact that California’s per capita tax collections are more than double Florida’s, verifiably so, did not stop Gavin Newsom from trying to suggest California imposes a lower tax burden, which is not true. State and Local Tax Collections Per Capita…

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Filed under: News - @ December 1, 2023 1:16 pm