Texas Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett issued a fiery warning for "broke" red states, pointing out how they actually rely on tax dollars from "big blue states" for funding.
Blue states tend to be wealthier than red states and pay more money to the federal government than they receive so they effectively subsidize low-tax red states.
An Associated Press fact-check notes that high-tax blue states "send far more tax dollars to Washington than residents in low-tax states" and the majority of low-tax states "make a profit from the federal government’s system of taxing and spending."
In the past, Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has even called for a "national divorce," saying red states should secede and go so far as to impose a 5-year voting moratorium for Democrats who move to them in an effort to kneecap their power as a viable voting bloc.
But in an interview with MSNBC, Crockett pointed out that President Donald Trump's "adversarial" stance toward blue states is now pushing Republicans in red states into the "find out phase":
"We have a president that is adversarial to states that don't vote for him. What some of these people fail to realize is that down in Alabama, who's broke, down in Louisiana, who's broke."
"I can go through pretty much the entire South and tell you that they’re broke and they rely on a lot of welfare from the government, to be perfectly honest, it is tax dollars from these big blue states like New York. Yeah, they send a lot of money into taxes and then broke states end up benefiting from it."
“And now they are about to find out, so we’re in the find out phase."
Crockett noted that Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican Senator, recently complained that her state's largest employer, the University of Alabama, "decided to cut all the research dollars." A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's drastic changes to the National Institutes of Health's funding system for biomedical research, pausing a plan that would significantly cut federally funded research grants.
She added:
"Research takes place at universities. Now you're going to have people in your already broke state that don't have jobs. The recession is coming. I told you here first."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Many concurred.
It’s like incompatible partners forced into a marriage.
— General Oluchi (@generaloluchi.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Blue states work. Red States? They take. Blue states educate. Red states? They indoctrinate. Blue states support choice. Red states? Forced birth. Sick of the red state welfare queens. Yeah, all y’all (even you, Texas).
— Brad Smith M.Ed. (@rootstockmaine.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Yep, red states are a bunch of spoiled brats who have no idea how dependent they are.
— Hidden_Account (@khaul.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 7:25 PM
The White House’s move to suspend federal grants and loans has underscored the financial dependence of many Republican-leaning states on federal support.
This halt in funding is likely to have the greatest impact on red states. Data from MoneyGeek shows that seven of the ten states most reliant on federal dollars lean Republican, receiving an average of $1.24 for every dollar they contribute.
In contrast, blue states typically see a slightly lower return, averaging $1.14 per dollar paid in federal taxes. New Mexico, a Democratic-leaning state, receives the highest return at $3.42 per dollar contributed, while Delaware, another blue state, gets the least at $0.46.
However, aside from these exceptions, wealthier blue states generally pay more in federal taxes than they receive, due to their higher tax revenues and lower reliance on government aid.
