Originally Posted by
MichaelP
That is fine and dandy, but if you take a serious look at the federal budget numbers you'll see who the freeloaders are. Texas is the only traditionally conservative state that contributes more to the federal budget than it takes from it, receiving back only 97% of the federal tax money it provides.
For what it is worth, with the way the federal budget has been managed for the last 20-ish years, if you removed it:
-15 to 16 states would fare better (14 "liberal", Texas and possibly Florida)
-California would probably have a balanced budget as their money wouldn't be spent floating Oklahoma and other conservative states
-The other states would either go bankrupt or have to scale back on expenses (road maintenance, medicare, national reserve, ...).