NY Times and Stevens Eulogies Point Out Ideological - Reality Gap

Leery of Washington, Alaska Feasts on Its Dollars, says the NY Times headline.  It begins talking about Carl Gatto, an outspoken anti-government state rep from Wasilla:

Mr. Gatto, 72 and wiry, smiles and shakes his head: “I’ll give the federal government credit: they sure give us a ton of money. For every $1 we give them in taxes for highways, they give us back $5.76.”

The New York Times doesn't mention that Gatto was born in New York City and graduated from  Brooklyn Tech High School and got his BA from Brooklyn Polytech.  Nor did they mention that most of his professional life has been spent working for government - in the military, as a teacher, as a paramedic/firefighter, and as a legislator.  

. . . Alaskans tend to live with their contradictions in these recessionary times. No place benefits more from federal largess than this state, where the Republican governor decries “intrusive” federal policies, officials sue to overturn the health care legislation and Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, voted against the stimulus bill. 

At the memorial services for Sen. Ted Stevens yesterday, everyone agreed - both the speakers and the audiences with their applause - that Uncle Ted's legacy is largely due to the fact that every part of Alaska has monuments to Stevens' ability to get federal dollars to Alaska.  One speaker even said, and got loud applause, that if Heaven has committees, we all hope that Stevens gets on the Appropriations Committee.

While we have this strong anti-government ideology and rhetoric of tough independence,  the facts are that we live off the largess of the Federal government and international oil companies who pay royalties and taxes for oil that, through no effort on our part, lies beneath our land.  And we all get annual individual checks from the State Permanent Fund just for living here.  A person getting all the checks since 1982 has received almost $31,000 payout from the state.  Alaskans still complain, without irony, about how the state spends "my tax money" even though individuals pay no state sales nor income nor property taxes. 

From the same New York Times article:

Victor Fischer, who helped write the state constitution in the 1950s, shrugs.
“There’s all this verbiage that says we’re the frontier, rough and ready,” says Mr. Fischer, lithe and sardonic in his mid-80s. “The Feds paid for everything, but the conflict runs through our history.”