Another email: “There is a lot that can be said on the subject of ‘red states feeding at the federal trough,’ but I’ll stick to just two points:
“1) Take a state like Mississippi: very poor and very red. Its vote split in the 2000 presidential election was 57% for Bush and 41% for Gore. Out of all the federal money that Mississippi rakes in, how much of it do you suppose goes in the form of entitlements, community grants, etc. to the 41% of the population that voted for Gore? I would hazard to guess that it is quite a chunk. In other words, I would wager that a disproportionate amount of the money that goes to ‘red’ states goes to the ‘blue’ citizens within those states.
“2) I’m really curious which federal expendatures the Tax Foundation counted in their calculations. Is military pay counted? If so, how do you possibly quantify and account for the disproportionate representation of red staters in the military, serving their nation and, in some cases, fighting and dying for it?”
I think military pay was counted.