Interesting map from the Economist shows us which states pay more in taxes than they get in spending and vice versa:
The big net recipients of taxpayer money seem to be poor states and low-population overrepresented states, with Maryland and DC thrown in for capital-related largess. The hard one for me to understand here is Nebraska, which seems like it should be more like Kansas, South Dakota, and Wyoming in this regard. Their Senators seem to have fallen down on the job.
This is also interesting in terms of the likely fiscal consequences of splitting the United States up. The new United States of Acela in the Northeast is in good shape, as is any plausible configuration of the Pacific coast. But smug liberals may not realize that either an independent Republic of Texas or some kind of Greater Texas would be fine. The Southeast, by contrast, is facing potential devastation if the country falls apart.
Previous in TP Yglesias
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.