Federal Spending Map: Which States Win? Which Lose?

[ulTRAX]

This map of 1999 federal spending is from a 2000 report called "Flow of Federal Funds to the States: Fiscal 1999" by the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

The report is not at its old URL. Their home page is http://www.nemw.org

If ever a picture was worth 1000 words. While there may be some logical reasons why NH gets only 71 cents back for every dollar they give to Washington while New Mexico gets $2.01... I don't know what they might be.

[RobertSeattle]

1. Logical Reason?

It's called raw political power - powerful chairman/woman push the money to their districts or places where their supporters are.

[ulTRAX]

3. reasons

I should not have said I had NO idea why the disparity was so great.... only that I had no hard numbers to attribute any numbers to any specific cause. Reasons could include political power... states being eligible for extra funds... highway, Medicaid etc. Some states may not participate in some federal programs. Some states may benefit from more retirees collecting SS. Others have younger workers contributing to SS.

[rfranklin]

2. We might rename those states the "welfare states"

For years, we've had to listen to the red state whiners talking about how the urban poor and welfare recipients in the big cities were getting such a great life courtesy of the U.S. government. Turns out those same whiners were actually siphoning off much, much more in federal funds than they ever paid in taxes. So much for right wing "self-reliance!"

[ulTRAX]

4. LOTS of new reports

http://www.nemw.org/fedspend.htm

[izzie]

6. I am having trouble keeping that on my screen and found no map

I would love to see it with the red and blue map which I like to call the purple map. Alaska used to hate the federal govt. and then when the din got really loud the paper would print what that state got and it used to be more than most states and a lot more than they sent to DC.I used to get a kick out of it. Maine I just do not know.Screen kept going blank.

[ulTRAX]

7. not sure....

Not sure what you mean that it's not staying on your screen?
The map or the last link to the federal spending page?

I put the map image up at
http://romcache.tripod.com/FedSpending99.gif
Sometimes Tripod doesn't allow direct access to images... and
maybe I'm only seeing it because I still have the site owner's
cookie. 

You can try going back to the original link in my first post,
right click if you have a PC, choose Save Target As... and
find a place in your file system. 

[democratreformed]

5. Okay, I hope I'm wrong

but, it seems to me that you are saying that for every tax dollar sent to Washington, some states get more in return than they paid in. So, here goes my answer:

I am from Arkansas - we have the highest poverty rate of any state in the nation. I already knew that but saw it again in some of the material at the link you provided. Also, on that link, I saw a chart showing that we have the lowest per capita income with the exception of Mississippi.

I was never able to see the "map" you referenced. So, I am assuming what you are talking about and, if I'm wrong, I apologize.

Now, since my state is very poor, it probably gets back more from the federal government than it's citizens pay in. I guess that's b/c it takes more to sustain our state infrastructure and programs than we "produce" - meaning, we are, as someone said above, a welfare state.

Now, what do you want us to do? Do you want to throw us out of the union? Do you want our citizens to do without?

To me, it is no different than people getting back more income taxes than they paid in b/c of the "earned income credit". I guess it's sort of a "redistribution of wealth" but at the state level.

[ulTRAX]

8. trying to embed map.. not sure it will work

<img src="">

If this doesn't work I'll go to the site and embed the image in a new page. Tripod sometimes doesn't allow direct access of images.

[democratreformed]

10. I just copy and pasted the link

you put in your reply up above. I saw the map and it was much as I suspected. Basically, we receive more than some other b/c we are not productive enough to "pay our own way" so to speak. That's the way I see it anyway. What to do about it?

I really don't know. But, I know that we sure need to work on it. Our economic situation is the pits overall down here. We have one little booming part of the state (northwest - Wal Mart Country). The rest of the state is losing factories steadily. In much of the southern part of the state, the main industry in agriculture. South of I-40 has traditionally always been known as a very poor area.

[Sparky McGruff]

15. Try this

It's the last page of a PDF file from that site: www.nemw.org/fedspend99.pdf

[ulTRAX]

13. arkansas

democratreformed wrote: "I am from Arkansas - we have the highest poverty rate of any state in the nation. I already knew that but saw it again in some of the material at the link you provided. Also, on that link, I saw a chart showing that we have the lowest per capita income with the exception of Mississippi."

According to the map... Arkansas got $1.41 dollar back for every dollar that went to Washington in 1999. New Mexico got $2.01.

"I was never able to see the "map" you referenced. So, I am assuming what you are talking about and, if I'm wrong, I apologize."

I found (hopefully) another way to display it... try http://romcache.tripod.com/fedspending.html

"Now, what do you want us to do? Do you want to throw us out of the union? Do you want our citizens to do without?"

I didn't suggest anything of the sort. Someone else made the comment about "welfare states". In another thread I said I was in favor of some redistribution of the nation's wealth to poorer states.

[democratreformed]

16. To be honest, I was not sure what you were implying in your

original post. That's why I apologized up there if I took it the wrong way. What were you meaning, by the way?

[ulTRAX]

17. I implied nothing

In another thread someone made the comment that our federalist formula allowed the small states to somehow exploit the bigger ones. Since that person presented no data... I posted this source there. It would be interesting to see how this map correlates with that theory.

Here I only wanted to share it for what it was... a useful tidbit of info from a larger report.

[democratreformed]

18. Okay, then. Did this strike you?

I didn't study it for a long time, but one thing that struck me was the most populous states seemed to be the ones getting the least back. Do you think the map showed that? It seemed like the states with the most people provide the money for others.

Again, I guess you would have to go look at actual population data, but, based on the number of delegates of states so far in the primaries (which are based on population), it looked like the most populous states are white on the map.

[ulTRAX]

19. I have not...

I have not tried to correlate the spending map with population data.... or how our federalist system grants small population state more power than they deserve in the EC and Senate. I do, however, I have a hunch there's a reasonable correlation. But to prove it there would have to be some way to remove the other causes for spending disparities to isolate such a correlation. My eyes glaze over at the prospect of such a mind-numbing project.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

9. Red States are mostly 'Winner' States

Blue States are mostly 'loser' states.

I like if my federal tax money goes to help the poor. I hate when my federal tax money goes to 'faith-based' programs.

[democratreformed]

11. The new faith based initiatives, as they are called

scare about as much as anything else right now. IMO, it gives too much power to religious institutions. It enables them to shape legislation and voter loyalties.

[ulTRAX]

14. that map is from 1999

So they predate Bush's attempt to use public funds to force God down the needy public's throat.

[ulTRAX]

12. HERE'S THE MAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to embed it in a page at Tripod to get it to work... sorry about that

http://members.tripod.com/~romcache/fedspending.html