A so-called "national divorce" would work out poorly for red states, which a new analysis shows depend heavily on blue states.
MSNBC economic analyst Steve Rattner presented data on "Morning Joe" showing that states won by Donald Trump contribute far less to the federal budget than states won by President Biden, which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and some other Republicans said should be separated from one another.
"The Trump states, virtually every single state except for Utah, don't ask me why Utah, got back more from Washington than it paid," Rattner said. "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, Mississippi and West Virginia."
Higher state-level poverty rates correlate with support for Republican candidates, Rattner said, while Democratic-leaning states tend to have higher income.
"You can see with your eye that the red states tend to be above the national average in poverty," Rattner said, while presenting a chart showing that correlation. "The blue states tend to be below the national average in poverty. Another way to look at it is if -- this is by counties but you get to the same place, on the right, how much of the [gross domestic product] is produced in these places -- red counties, 29 percent, blue counties, 71 percent. They're suffering more economically, and that does lead to the question of, how does that result in more money going to these states?"
https://www.rawstory.com/national-divorce/
