Why a nationwide divorce would not figure out well for purple states

Meanwhile congresswoman Marjorie Taylor green of Georgia made headlines earlier this week calling for Republican states effectively to secede from the union the Georgia Republican posted her proposal on Twitter writing the U.S should be separated by red and blue States because of quote woke culture issues Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Ratner here with.

Charts that show why a national divorce would not work out so well for those deep red States Steve good morning what do you have for us good morning well first of all Marjorie Taylor green is not alone there have been a number of polls there's one in 2021 the two-thirds of Southern Republicans wanted to secede from the rest of the country and it's.

Not going to work out well because when you take a look at how the balance of spending versus taxes goes across the country what you can see here is that on the left side of the states carried by Joe Biden the green are states in which the state paid more to Washington in taxes than it got back in other benefits the orange colors and they're shaded.

Depending upon the degree of disparity are the states where the states got back more from Washington than they sent and you can see on the left a lot of green on the by the states nine states all together as a matter of fact and on the right the Trump States virtually every single state except for Utah don't ask me why Utah got back more from.

Washington than it paid and so it would not really work very well to their advantage to leave in fact the top states for getting a better deal from Washington are Kentucky Kentucky Mississippi and West Virginia yeah and if you look at poverty rates as well Steve higher poverty rates correlate by and large with some of these red States.

Yeah so you can say well why is this happening and poverty rates plays the major role and first let's look at what the poverty rates are the chart on the left graphs the amount the extent to which the state is a Republican state the the further to the right is more Republican as you go up the scale more poverty and you can see with your eye.

That the red States tend to be above the national average in poverty the blue States tend to be below the national average in poverty another way to look at it is if you this happens to be by counties but you get to the same place on the right how much GDP how much of the nation's economy is produced in these places the.

Red States 20 the red counties 29 percent the blue County 71 percent so they're suffering more economically and that does lead to the question of how does that result in more money going to these states I mean Steve that's incredible 71 of America's GDP comes from counties.

That voted for Joe Biden 71 um so again this just underlines the fact it will be devastating uh for there to be a divide uh for for those areas that voted for Donald Trump to what a quote uh you know separation a divorce from um from the United States I I mean yeah what what uh what do you think well.

What other chart do you have any other charges that we can move along to here yeah I've got one that sort of breaks it down and shows you how that works and why it happens that way and so this chart takes the United States in the center and then the two states on the left that get the best deal the two states on the right get the worst deal.

And what you can see is the main driver of that are tax revenues because if a state is poorer it's going to pay less than federal taxes so you can see on the left Kentucky and and Mississippi which on average pay 56 600 and 5700 dollars a year in taxes and all the way on the right you can see Massachusetts and Connecticut which pay far more almost.

Fifteen thousand dollars in taxes to Washington so they pay a lot more in taxes but then you look at the top part of the chart what do they get back and you can see that the let's start with the green because it's the most interesting the green is federal money that they get back for projects infrastructure projects military and so.

Forth and you can see Kentucky all the way on the left why is Kentucky all the way on the left Mitch McConnell is the Republican leader has been for a long time you may remember for example Joe Biden going down to the Kentucky Ohio border with Rich McConnell to break a bottle of champagne or whatever they did over that new billion dollar bridge that.

Is being paid for by Washington Fort Knox is in Kentucky there's stuff all over Kentucky that Mitch McConnell has delivered to Kentucky it's a very unusual situation for most of the states that do better you can see for example Mississippi which is the poorest state in the country tree that light blue are programs like Medica programs like.

Medicaid the dark blue includes programs like food stamps and so because they they are poor or pay less I shouldn't say I shouldn't say it quite that way because they pay less and have lower income uh residents they get back more in federal benefits toward those programs so Steve you've laid out the numbers here if this hypothetical were.

To have an emergency Taylor green were to get her wish and these states were to secede what are some of the Practical real world impacts it would have on those States yeah they would be they would have huge sort of deficits economic deficits they wouldn't have money for their projects they wouldn't have new Bridges they wouldn't have.

Federal installations in their districts they wouldn't have food stamps and they wouldn't have Medicaid to help cushion their residents against uh pretty extreme poverty uh it would be a it would be a really tough and stupid economic decision again the whole irony of this is you've got Republicans who oppose kind of almost every kind of fed.

Federal spending who are the biggest beneficiaries of the federal spending that they oppose so in summary a terrible idea for everyone involved and a hypocritical let's knock it off terrible idea for everyone in those red States all right Steve Ratner with the chart Steve thanks so much good to see you coming up.

thank you

Sharing is caring!