I'll take the low hanging fruit as there's lots of room for debate and compromise on the rest of your post...  As for assistance, how do we qualify that? For example, in some way or another everyone has qualified or used federal funds for assistance, be it for highway construction or some other reason. Where do we draw the line?  If you receive money directly from the government, you are not eligible to vote.  With that, you don't get knocked off the voter roll because a road was built/improved.