United States
Despite considerable differences in the abilities of states to generate revenues, there is no federal program in the United States that aims explicitly at reducing the disparities in state fiscal capacity. Certain federal-state transfers, however, do contain equalizing elements. For instance, some formula grants consider a state's personal income in determining levels of federal support. However, most federal grant programs require that each state receive at least .5% of the grant money regardless of population, so large states end up subsidizing small states, thus enabling the small states to have low or no income taxes.
Some grant programs are consistently equalizing, such as education programs aimed at the disadvantaged, food and nutrition programs and, for the most part, Medicaid. In aggregate, however, U.S. federal grants do little to reduce horizontal fiscal imbalances. With the responsibility for public goods and services scattered over three levels of government (federal, state, and local), the U.S. system of intergovernmental transfers responds foremost to the needs determined by the various grant programs.
Read more about this topic: Equalization Payments
Famous quotes related to united states:
“Steal away and stay away.
Don’t join too many gangs. Join few if any.
Join the United States and join the family
But not much in between unless a college.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name.... We must be impartial in thought as well as in action ... a nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the world.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)