RED vs BLUE
Atrios spins this study as showing that Red states are stealing money from blue states.
I wonder just how much he really wants to push this theme. I thought it was us classical liberals who dismiss government programs as a feeding frenzy for the politically connected, while "progressives" (they aren't scare quotes, I just don't think their preferred policies will create progress) think the govenrment does good, useful work. So Atrios must believe either a) that all of the valuable Federal Government work must axiomatically be evenly distributed among the 50 states, or b) government programs really are just a feeding frenzy for the politically connected, and the Red states are hypocrites because they're better at it than the blue states. It seems to me that (a) requires some defending, while (b) just plays into the anti-progressive hands.
I wonder just how much he really wants to push this theme. I thought it was us classical liberals who dismiss government programs as a feeding frenzy for the politically connected, while "progressives" (they aren't scare quotes, I just don't think their preferred policies will create progress) think the govenrment does good, useful work. So Atrios must believe either a) that all of the valuable Federal Government work must axiomatically be evenly distributed among the 50 states, or b) government programs really are just a feeding frenzy for the politically connected, and the Red states are hypocrites because they're better at it than the blue states. It seems to me that (a) requires some defending, while (b) just plays into the anti-progressive hands.
posted by Scott at
8:54 AM
