Jeb Golinkin explains:
A New York Times investigation has uncovered a shocking scandal they would have you believe involves big corporations blackmailing your state government and stealing tax dollars that should be spent on public education. This scandal, though not identified as such in the article, is called federalism. It finds its roots in the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Granted, the statistical research The Times provides in the piece is invaluable, but the article is confused as to the conclusions that flow from the numbers. The most glaring statistic is the dollar amount of “gifts” (to use Mitt Romney’s phrase) that Texas doles out to corporate America each year: $19 billion. How could this be? Well, according to Sarah Eckhardt, a Travis County commissioner who has purportedly negotiated with evil giants like Apple and Hewlett-Packard, the poor little government folk simply cannot keep up:
“They dictate their terms, and we’re not really in a position to question their deal terms, we don’t have the sophistication or the resources to negotiate with a company that has the wherewithal the size of a country. We are just no match in negotiating with that.”
