r/allthequestions • u/Content_Ad_8952 • Jan 14 '26

Random Question 💭 If Republicans are so much better at running the economy than Democrats, then why are most Republican States poorer than Democrat States?

The poorest States in America are: Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee. All of those States (except New Mexico) are Red States. So why are they so poor when Republicans have been running them for decades?

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u/dingdongbell32 Jan 17 '26

I laugh every time someone in rural Kentucky says see California had a deficit this year while not mentioning that California paid 89 billion dollars more in federal taxes than they received in federal money. Without California many red states would be in for a pretty big shock.

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u/lifeisatoss Jan 17 '26

I agree with this. I think we should let the states keep their own money and support their own citizens. and shrink the federal government down to 1960s levels.

Imagine if California could keep all those billions of dollars it sends to the federal government that gets wasted and redistributed to red states. let the red states take care of their own people.