Poetic Justice?

Federal Tax Revenues and Spending

Even if it may not be poetic justice it is certainly ironic that to the extent the federal government
redistributes federal tax revenues it receives from each state in federal spending among the
federal states, the biggest losers are the states which consistently vote for candidates who support
higher federal taxes.
While its generally accepted that American conservatives and Red States generally favor
lowering levels of taxes while American liberals and Blue States generally support higher
levels of taxation, a recent post by Paul Caron at TaxProf Blog indicates the irony of that
distinction when the amount of tax revenues each state sends to the federal government is
compared to the amount of federal revenue spending each state receives.
In fact, the so called liberal Blue States which reliably vote Democratic in presidential elections
also almost invariably send significantly more revenue to the federal government than the federal
government spends in those states. Conversely, those Red States that reliably vote Republican in
presidential elections also, with some exceptions, such as Hawaii, Vermont and Rhode Island,
receive more revenue back from the federal government than they send in federal tax revenues.
Oregon, Washington and California are all among the top losers in this redistribution of wealth.
12/9/2016 Lawrence B. Hunt of Hunt & Associates, P.C. All rights reserved.