Ranking the States – USA Gov Policy

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released its annual ranking of the fifty states.

According to ALEC, “The 2015 economic outlook ranking is a forward-looking measure of how each state can expect to perform economically based on 15 policy areas that have proven, over time, to be the best determinants of economic success.”

The five states with the best prospects are Utah, North Dakota, Indiana, North Carolina and Arizona. The five with the worst prospects are Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and New York.

From best to worst, here are ALEC’s state rankings:

1 Utah 2 North Dakota 3 Indiana 4 North Carolina 5 Arizona 6 Idaho 7 Georgia 8 Wyoming 9 South Dakota 10 Nevada 11 Texas 12 Virginia 13 Wisconsin 14 Alaska 15 Florida 16 Oklahoma 17 Tennessee 18 Kansas 19 Alabama 20 Mississippi 21 Colorado 22 Arkansas 23 Ohio 24 Michigan 25 Iowa 26 Louisiana 27 Missouri 28 Massachusetts 29 New Hampshire 30 Kentucky 31 Nebraska 32 South Carolina 33 Maryland 34 New Mexico 35 Washington 36 West Virginia 37 Hawaii 38 Delaware 39 Rhode Island 40 Illinois 41 Pennsylvania 42 Maine 43 Montana 44 California 45 Oregon 46 New Jersey 47 Connecticut 48 Minnesota 49 Vermont 50 New York

The policy areas include the top marginal personal income tax rate, top marginal corporate income tax rate, personal income tax progressivity, property tax burden, sales tax burden, remaining tax burden, existence of estate/inheritance taxes, recently legislated tax changes, debt service as a share of tax revenue, public employees per 10,000 of population, state liability system survey, state minimum wage, average workers’ compensation costs, right to work legislation, and the number of tax expenditure limits.

CNN Money http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/state-unemployment-rates/ compared unemployment ratings in the states. From best to worst:


1	NORTH DAKOTA
2	NEBRASKA
2	UTAH
4	SOUTH DAKOTA
4	VERMONT
6	HAWAII
6	NEW HAMPSHIRE
6	WYOMING
9	IOWA
9	MINNESOTA
11	MONTANA
11	OKLAHOMA
13	IDAHO
14	KANSAS
15	TEXAS
16	COLORADO
17	LOUISIANA
17	VIRGINIA
19	MAINE
20	MASSACHUSETTS
20	WASHINGTON
22	OHIO
22	PENNSYLVANIA
22	SOUTH CAROLINA
25	WISCONSIN
26	INDIANA
27	MARYLAND
28	ARKANSAS
28	DELAWARE
28	FLORIDA
31	WEST VIRGINIA
32	ALASKA
32	MISSOURI
32	NEW JERSEY
32	NORTH CAROLINA
36	CONNECTICUT
36	NEW MEXICO
36	NEW YORK
39	ILLINOIS
40	OREGON
41	ALABAMA
41	ARIZONA
43	TENNESSEE
44	CALIFORNIA
44	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
44	KENTUCKY
47	MICHIGAN
47	NEVADA
47	RHODE ISLAND
50	GEORGIA
51	MISSISSIPPI

But quitting can post great challenge, hence, most http://djpaulkom.tv/audio-snootie-wild-joins-dm6-for-gimmi-back-my-dope-remix-listen-now/ levitra online people need behavioral modification, medical attention and dental support. There are plenty of ways to deal with sleep troubles or insomnia, a cialis on line difficulty falling or staying asleep through the night. There is always some kind of medication that can benefit you by both improved purchase viagra sexual abilities with lowest price. Reduced supply of blood to genital area leads to erectile dysfunction generic cialis australia djpaulkom.tv or impotence.

Quick Analysis

Putin’s Saber Rattling

Earlier this week, President Biden reversed his 2022 decision, authorizing the provision of antipersonnel land mines to the Ukrainian government. It follows an earlier Administration authorization to allow the use of an advanced American missile system capable of striking as deep as 100 miles inside Russian territory. The US election season may be ending, but both Russia and the West show no indication of stepping down the conflict. Russian propaganda continues to swell as the Kremlin increases its threats to use nuclear weapons against the West. Last week Andrey Sushentsov, program director of the pro-Kremlin think tank Valdai Discussion Club (VDC), published an article on growing nuclear tensions in the region. Official Russian language in the last few years has been threatening. Since the US election, rhetoric like that in the Sushentsov article, has approached the level of nuclear blackmail. The VDC article’s main theme centers on Russia’s intent to directly confront the West militarily if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) becomes involved in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. “On the one hand, these threats are intended to frighten the West, but on the other, Russian propagandists themselves are starting to believe in the inevitability of escalation,” according to Ksenia Kirillova of the Jamestown Foundation. On November 11, Sushentsov wrote that “The conflict will reach a completely new level, with unpredictable consequences for Europe and the entire world.” Kirillova points out that Putin’s distorted image of the world is divorced from reality and is causing the Kremlin to issue demands that are impossible to fulfill. Financial and other Russian resources needed to support Putin’s war are growing scarcer at the same time. This week the Kremlin announced a reduction of payments to its soldiers. Recently North Korea acknowledged it was sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine as Putin is running out of bodies to use as cannon fire. The war is not going well for Russia. One question floating around the Washington intelligence community is whether Putin will act out of desperation before President-elect Trump assumes office. In recent months the Russian propaganda machine is spewing out materials from fairly reputable analytical platforms inside the country. Kirillova says that “Kremlin ‘experts’ do not conceal that such threats are only intended to break the West psychologically, as they themselves are not prepared for full-scale nuclear war.” Despite Russia’s lack of preparation for an all-out war with the West, the expanding nuclear rhetoric carries with it an increase in the threat of a full-scale war in multiple theaters of operation. In June 2023 a founder of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Sergey Karaganov, called for “delivering a pre-emptive strike of retaliation” on Poland to force the West to surrender. In the previous month, Dmitry Suslov, a direct of research programs at the policy center proposed organizing “a demonstration nuclear explosion” aimed at intimidating the West. In September, President Putin announced a reappraisal of Russian nuclear doctrine after speaking earlier in the year at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and jokingly calling Suslov a “scary person.” Pavel Baev, writing in the European Daily Monitor, says “Putin intends his announcement to mark an escalation of nuclear brinkmanship and influence the proceedings of future Ukrainian peace efforts.” Putin is expanding the list of environmental conditions that are acceptable for using a nuclear weapon and incorporating it into Russian military doctrine. Baev adds that “The ups and downs of Russian brinkmanship are disconnected from the kinetic battles of the war, correlating instead with Ukrainian peace offensives, such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first peace summit in Bürgenstock, Switzerland.” Despite the increase in vitriolic language, in a You Tube video published a week before the US presidential election, Karaganov openly assured the West the primary goal of the escalation is to break the American spirit and that of the West, not outright nuclear war. By Election Day in the US, with political prognosticators predicting a win for former president Trump, Karaganov changed his tune and called for an increased role in nuclear deterrence. Kirillova points out that Western concessions to Russia are unlikely to reduce the risk of nuclear escalation. The distorted reality inside the Kremlin continues to push that President-elect Trump is an adherent of “world government,” that Ukraine will create a nuclear weapon, and Russia must prepare for a nuclear conflagration to achieve its ambitions for a new world order. President-elect Trump has indicated he will not agree to concessions that destabilize Europe, the Middle East or other regions. Going forward a strong US foreign policy may be the most stabilizing course the West can count on to restrain Putin and his intent to rebuild the Russian empire. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay

Our Latest Television Program

New Era in World Affairs

There will be a dramatic change in Washington in the aftermath of the election. What will this mean for America’s national security and foreign affairs? Our guests, former CIA officer and Vice President at the Center for Security Policy Clair Lopez, along with ret. Col. John Mills, (author of The Nation Will Follow) provide extraordinary insights. If you missed the program on your local station, catch it here: https://rumble.com/v5oonnb-the-american-political-zone-november-12-2024.html