Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has come out as a vocal advocate for a “national divorce” between liberal and conservative states. But “Morning Joe” economic analyst Steve Ratner warned Thursday that red states would experience “huge economic deficits” if such a move succeeded.
“[Red states] wouldn’t have money for their projects, they wouldn’t have new bridges, they wouldnt have federal installations in their districts, they wouldn’t have food stamps, they wouldn’t have Medicaid to help cushion their residents against extreme poverty,” he explained. “It would be a really tough and stupid economic decision.”
According to 2019 data from The Rockfeller Institute, the majority of states that voted for former President Donald Trump got more back from the federal government in taxes than they spent.
Meanwhile, 2020 data from the Census Bureau, MIT Elections Lab and Brookings Institute showed that red states tended to be above the national average poverty rate, while blue states were generally below the national average. It also revealed that counties that supported Trump produced 29% of gross domestic product, compared to 71% produced by counties who supported Biden.
“This just underlines the fact that it would be devastating for there to be a divide,” host Joe Scarborough said.
Ratner noted that the top states for getting a better deal from Washington were Kentucky, Mississippi and West Virginia, with the former two states paying an average of $6,600 and $5,700 a year in taxes, respectively. In comparison, blue states Massachusetts and Connecticut paid almost $15,000 in taxes, according to the data.
“The whole irony of this is you’ve got Republicans who oppose almost every kind of federal spending who are the biggest beneficiaries of the federal spending that they oppose,” Ratner added.
Watch the full segment in the video above.
