This may be fairly well known by now, but a quick review by my friend Jack Ayer shows that the Blue States subsidize the Red States.
Comparing Fed expenditures per state with revenues:
Ten states who get back the least, in order from very least, are:
* NJ Conn NH NV MN Il Mass Colo NY Calif
* All but NV and Colo went for Kerry.
Ten states who got back most:
* NDak NM Miss Alaska WVA Mont LA SDak Ark Hawaii
* Of these only Hawaii went for Kerry.
(This excludes DC which gets more than 3 times the revenues of the leader North Dakota, but doesn't have a full franchise anyway.)
"Now," Jack wrote me last week, "I wonder about divorce rates..." Studies that came out last week seem to suggest that divorce rates are higher in Red States.
No, I'm not claiming any special virtues for the Blue States, but this does undermine the argument that the Blue States are simply welfare-dependent or cultural outlaws.
Source for financial data.
Source for political data.