If Republican policies work, why are red states poorer?

Republican politicians campaign on the idea that government doesn’t work and then prove it by governing badly.

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Last week on the show, I made the case that if New England and New York decided to form their own country, it would instantly rank among the richest and most successful nations on Earth. The reason is simple: blue states subsidize red ones. But we need to dig deeper into that reality; not just that red states depend on blue states, but that they are falling further behind, and it’s not an accident.

It’s policy: predictable, measurable, and entirely self-inflicted.

The Red State Paradox

Look at the poorest states in America: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Every one of them is solidly Republican. Every one of them is getting poorer.

Meanwhile, the richest states — Massachusetts, New York, California, Connecticut, and Minnesota — all lean Democratic. They have higher minimum wages, stronger worker protections, and better-funded schools. They also invest more in public health, infrastructure, and social safety nets. And the results speak for themselves.

Republicans keep promising to “turn things around,” but the data tells a different story. When conservative states lower taxes for the wealthy, cut social programs, and gut education funding, their economies don’t grow. Instead, they stagnate.

Lessons They Refuse to Learn

The Kansas experiment is a perfect example. Lawmakers slashed taxes, promising an economic boom that never came. The state’s finances collapsed, schools shut down early, roads fell into disrepair, and even Republican legislators eventually reversed the policy. Yet other states like Mississippi and Oklahoma keep repeating the same mistakes.

Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the country, recently pushed through tax cuts for the rich. The result? Fewer resources for schools and hospitals, while the wealthy and corporations keep their breaks. Rejecting the Medicaid expansion has also accelerated rural hospital closures, leaving entire regions without basic healthcare access.

And somehow, the politicians responsible keep getting reelected.

The Irony of The Bailout

What keeps these states afloat is not their own policy success but federal money, much of it generated by blue states. California and New York send far more tax revenue to Washington than they receive, while red states like Mississippi and West Virginia take in far more than they pay out.

That’s the irony: the so-called “fiscally conservative” states depend heavily on the ones they mock as “socialist.” Without the federal redistribution funded by blue states, large parts of the South and Midwest would collapse under the weight of their own mismanagement.

Then there’s the brain drain. Educated young people from red states leave for opportunities in blue states, where wages are higher, rights are stronger, and quality of life is better. Republicans like to talk about “coastal elites,” but the truth is that their own policies keep driving talent and investment away.

The Evidence They Ignore

Around the world, the same pattern holds. Countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Norway were all built on socially democratic policies and consistently rank highest in prosperity, happiness, and health outcomes. They have universal healthcare, strong education systems, and robust worker protections. Far from being “socialist hellholes,” they are thriving capitalist democracies.

The American states that most resemble those systems like Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, are also among the most prosperous. Higher life expectancy, better education, higher incomes, stronger infrastructure. The formula works, and it’s not a mystery.

Invest in education, healthcare, and infrastructure, and people do better. Cut taxes for the rich, starve public services, and the state suffers. Yet election after election, many red states keep choosing the same failing model, convinced that this time, it will somehow work.

A Self-Inflicted Struggle

Republican politicians campaign on the idea that government doesn’t work and then prove it by governing badly. They sabotage education, reject federal funding, weaken worker protections, and then point to the resulting dysfunction as evidence that “big government” is the problem.

Meanwhile, the data remains clear: blue states and social democracies deliver higher living standards and better outcomes across the board. Red states, by contrast, keep falling further behind. And not because of bad luck or culture, but because of the policies they continue to vote for.

The question is simple: will they ever learn?

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I recently discussed this topic with political activist Jess Piper in a Substack Live. Jess lives in rural Missouri and ran for office herself in 2022. She expressed that one of the key reasons rural areas continue to “vote against their own self-interests” is that oftentimes there isn’t even a Democrat on the ballot. She spoke to the reasons why that happens and how progressive activists are working to gain back momentum in red states. You can watch that full conversation here.

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