Taxation by state

[Hackalicious]

Typically Hackalicious those numbers are indicative of how a state votes in the presidential election. The winning party usually will reward the states that went there way. Alaska usually doesn't follow this rule. Due to their powerful Senator on the Appropriations committee. Hence, the bridge to no where we saw recently. Michigan also this past election year somehow bucked that trend too. This past election cycle MI received an unprecedented amount of funds for roads.

You do make a good point in that New York, California, and Massachusetts all have Republican governors. Meanwhile, states like Tennessee, Wyoming, and Kansas all have Democrats in the statehouse.

One caveat of the link I posted is that it might include spending for military bases. That would greatly distort places like Alaska and Hawaii.

Another issues is that small states, especially ones with a single representative, are disproportionately represted in congress, so can be expected to get a disproportionate amount of funds. A voter in a place like North Dakota "counts" more than a Californian.

This whole "red/blue" dichotomy is pretty ridiculous and I think is largely a result of dumbed-down media. I took Sonny's bait and played into it, though.

[Brent Burns]

I am aware that I may be diverging from the actual topic of taxation by state, but with some discussion of the blue/red states. That made me wonder about the genesis of the concept of the blue and red states. I found it at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_state

Check out the "Choice of Colors" section. That is where it becomes interesting to learn how this came into being. When the year 2000 came around, all of the media networks came to an agreement to label states that voted Republican "red" and Democrats "blue." NBC, prior to 2000, once dubbed Democrats "red" and Republicans "blue" for a short time.

[DanGenck]

And here I thought the Democrats were blue because we were sad from losing all the time? (See? I can take shots at myself)

Or perhaps from the old Beatles song, "Please don't wear red tonight... for red is the color that will make me blue..." etc etc.

[Sonny]

I took Sonny's bait and played into it, though.

Don't worry Hack. I "catch and release" the fish I catch!