Some snippet that I caught on the news recently got me thinking about red states and blue states – the states that tend to vote for Republicans and Democrats respectively.
Somewhere in my aging brain cells, I remember learning that one of the arguments for strong state governments with a weak federal system is that the states provide laboratories for public policy. States can adopt different polices in regards to minimum wages and health care and tax structure and social services. We then have a chance to see which policies are most effective in promoting the general welfare. Even more importantly, the impacts from bad public policies that end up hurting people are limited in their extent. Less successful states can learn from more successful states and the general welfare is promoted.
In this state of mind, I started thinking about California and Texas. I’m a native son of the former and an adopted son of the latter. By the time I had graduated from college, I had spent just about equal time living in both states – 12 years in CA and 10 years in TX. My dad was a native Californian and my mom was a native Texan. So I’m a Calixan or, if you’re a feminist, I’m a Texifornian. I love both states.
Both states are large in terms of geography and population. Both are rich in oil and other natural resources. Both have long borders with Mexico and face similar immigration issues. Both states are proud of their social/cultural traditions and each is somewhat dismissive of the stereotypical image of the other.
In contrast, both states are in drastically different economic situations at the moment. California is a mess with a $40 billion shortfall on a $100 billion budget. Texas is running a surplus. California is losing jobs while Texas is adding them. California has a total state and local tax burden at $5,028 per capita while the comparable tax burden in Texas is $3,580 per person (10.5% of per capita income in California and 8.4% of per capita income in Texas putting the states as the 6th highest versus the 7th lowest of the 50 states).
I started looking on the internet and there is a lot of discussion devoted to red state versus blue state differences. The gist of it all is that red states tend to be doing better than blue states on a whole host of measures.
Here is an interesting one – red state residents give a higher percentage of their per capita income to charity. Twenty eight of the twenty nine most generous states voted for Bush in 2004 while 17 of the 21 least generous voted for Kerry. Texas ranks 22nd in per capita income but has the 4th highest per capita giving. The numbers are almost the exact opposite in California. It has the 6th highest per capita income but ranks 19th in terms of per capita giving.
If state governments were a for-profit business, everyone would be studying what is going on in Texas and figuring out how to apply it to their states. Texas would be holding seminars and other states would be paying big bucks to come and learn how to do it right.
But just the opposite is happening. At the federal level, we are adopting public policies that are much closer to those in California than those in Texas.
Even worse, federal money is going to be spent to bail out the failing blue states. It’s a kind of weird co-dependency where the responsible adults keep coming to the rescue of the irresponsible teenagers. It is the exact opposite of what the founders envisioned.
(By the way, is the Obama administration going to advocate all kinds of conditions on the receipt of “bailout” money by these economically troubled states like he is proposing for private businesses that receives federal money? If he wants to limit CEO pay in the private sector to 10% of what is typical, should all governors and state legislators be required to reduce their pay to 10% of normal? Shouldn’t these states be required to follow more productive policies like drilling for oil off the coast of California instead of expecting other states to pay for their high-brow environmental tastes?)
When I have a chance to read more on the red state/blue state issue, I’m sure that there will be layers of complexity and people will argue that the differences between blue and red states are due to all sorts of factors unrelated to political philosophy. Feel free to weigh in if you know of some of these kinds of issues.
In the meantime and for reasons cited above, I’m not a big fan of the various stimulus bills and bailouts. I think it is just going to enable the irresponsible states to continue their irresponsibility. Instead of learning from successful states, we are going to reward the unsuccessful ones. It’s all backwards and the solution to just about every problem I can think of is to do the exact opposite of what we are doing. It’s time to start seeing red and avoiding the blues.
Wow! Excellent op-ed, Mike. Truly of national media quality (and I mean that in a good sense)!
The Obama administration seeks to make people dependent on government. Of course, they would never say so directly. But that is what their policies are doing. It is Robin Hood on a national scale. Demonize the productive members of society, and whip the masses into a frenzy of class envy and from there into class warfare. Promise the unproductive and irresponsible that, despite their unproductivity, they will be able get something for nothing. Then tax the productive members of society to the point that they conclude that there is no point in working hard to achieve success because the government will just take it away. The government offers largesse with one hand, and takes away incentive and personal freedom with the other. In the end, American exceptionalism bites the dust and we join Europe and Canada under the false shelter of Big Brother’s umbrella.
Viva Hugo Chavez!
A significant part of California’s deficit has to do with the tax restrictions imposed by Props 13 and 4. I don’t know of any similar situation in Texas. One can only hope that Colorado avoids a similar fate with the TABOR restrictions.
California’s deficit is related to the legislature’s unwillingness to restrain spending. Services to illegal aliens contributes to the problem. Prop 13 provides a tiny measure of protection to homeowners who are otherwise being raped by the state government.