The Charade

Even as Red States are voting against their best interests with their hands out and voting Tea Baggers into office, the charts below reveal the paradox.

It's always interesting to keep in mind when the Obstructionists stymie progress.

Most Red States Take More Money From Washington Than They Put In

Even as Republicans gripe about deficit spending, their states get 30 cents more federal spending per tax dollar than their Democratic neighbors.

States receiving the most federal funding per tax dollar paid:

1. New Mexico: $2.63
2. West Virginia: $2.57
3. Mississippi: $2.47
4. District of Colombia: $2.41
5. Hawaii: $2.38
6. Alabama: $2.03
7. Alaska: $1.93
8. Montana: $1.92
9. South Carolina: $1.92
10. Maine: $1.78

—By Dave Gilson

| Thu Feb. 16, 2012

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/11/states-federal-taxes-spending-charts-maps

America's fiscal union

Blithe acceptance

Jun 25th 2012

IN A blogpost on Friday, Paul Krugman pointed out that income gaps between euro-members are no greater than income gaps between American states. The difference, he writes, is that

we think of ourselves as a nation, and blithely accept fiscal measures that routinely transfer large sums to the poorer states without even thinking of it as a regional issue

About a year ago The Economist had a go at calculating quite how large those blithe transfers were. We added up the federal taxes each state paid less the federal spending it received from 1990 to 2009. The results are here. Over a couple of decades, many states have indeed accumulated colossal nominal 'debts' to the union.

The state-by-state spending figures came from the Census Bureau's Consolidated Federal Funds report. Do you want to know which states got the lion's share of federal spending in the last fiscal year? Well if so, tough. The Consolidated Federal Funds report is no more. It was abolished to save cash. It seems the federal government does not have enough money to find out where its money is spent. That blithe acceptance is now blind.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/06/americas-fiscal-union

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-fiscal-union

 

Click on link to view entire chart:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-fiscal-union