Colorado City cult cashes in

What does 28 years of conservative rule in D.C. mean for cults like Colorado City, Arizona?

It's been a windfall - a gravy train, if you will.

Colorado City, Arizona, and the neighboring village of Hildale, Utah, compose a right-wing polygamous cult based on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - which long ago broke away from the larger Mormon church. This small community has also produced some of the highest percentages for Republican political candidates, even at the presidential level.

The cult rests on the state line so it can escape to the other state each time one state turns up the heat. And the cult is far wealthier than official figures would reveal: It resembles not a poor shantytown but a financially secure exurb.

Each year, the tiny Colorado City school system - which has actually become an extension of the cult - gets $4,000,000 of federal tax dough. This sum is far more per student than most districts receive. The minuscule town has also gotten $1,900,000 from HUD just for projects like resurfacing streets.

The federal government even built a $2,800,000 airport for Colorado City that receives almost no traffic from anyone outside the community.

Residents of Colorado City receive 8 times as much in federal government services as they pay in taxes.

At the same time, however, the cult's leaders assail poor people elsewhere who collect any type of government benefits. And they usually vote as a bloc for the Republicans, who have built almost their entire recent platform on such phony populism.

Can you say hypocrites? Sure. Sure you can.

The cult's excuse for their own actions is that they are "bleeding the beast" - the "beast" being the very federal government that keeps them afloat.

Like the Ave Maria cult in Florida, Colorado City is a glorified Branch Davidians - thriving at your expense.