# Powerful article! - "Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 4, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179 "2011-09-04T19:32:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/181 "2011-09-13T08:56:38Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I mentioned the perverse incentives that are created by allowing people who have NO skin in the game to have EXACTLY the same vote as those who have lots of skin, … It may be off-topic here, but I hope you start a thread explaining how the skin-in-game voting system would work. Does a $10,000 tax payment get ten times the vote as a $1000 payment, or is there a sliding scale? Are non-taxpayers allowed to “buy skin” to get votes? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/182 "2011-09-13T14:17:37Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > It may be off-topic here, but I hope you start a thread explaining how the skin-in-game voting system would work. Does a $10,000 tax payment get ten times the vote as a $1000 payment, or is there a sliding scale? Are non-taxpayers allowed to “buy skin” to get votes? Corporations are able to buy skin by the yard. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/183 "2011-09-13T15:09:20Z")
I’d like to know why Huerta doesn’t think he’d be priced out of the “skin” game. ---
**Author:** ![AlienVessels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba8739/32.png) [@AlienVessels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlienVessels)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/184 "2011-09-13T15:19:36Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Were you under the impression that sales taxes funded national government? > > If so, you are quite wrong. Helps fund, yes: > **[Fuel taxes in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States)** > > The United States federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel. Proceeds from the tax partly support the Highway Trust Fund. The federal tax was last raised on October 1, 1993, and is not indexed to inflation, which increased 111% from October 1993 until December 2023. On average, as of April 2019\[update\], state and local taxes and fees add 34.24 cents to gasoline and 35.89 cents to diesel, for a total US volume-weighted average fuel tax The... > [@](#): > > The federal gasoline tax raised $25 billion on gasoline in 2006 ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/185 "2011-09-13T16:15:23Z")
I’m curious to know how many times **huerta** used the phrase “skin in the game” before this election cycle. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/186 "2011-09-15T23:41:49Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > In a world where the federal government is a spending/wealth redistribution machine, as opposed to what the Founders envisioned (an entity that would defend the borders, coin money, and deliver the mail, and not much else) – no, why should non-payers get a say in where (other people’s) money gets redistributed? > > Shrink the government’s spending/redistribution role back to its historical/constitutional role – my answer might (or might not) be different. I wonder how many of those who want the US federal government to shrink back to just the functions it had when the US Constitution was created also want the country to shrink back to the same small, 3rd-rate, agricultural, rural, nation of 4 million people, with a minuscule army and navy, and restricted to the East coast of North America, that those functions were adequate for at that time? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179.md?page=9)