MB Civic

Real-life Republicans and Tea Partyers abhor big government. But as President Bartlett pointed out, we do not operate as a collection of states, and the federal government gives considerable aid to the various states to supplement state funding.

This is inevitably a redistribution from wealthier states to poorer states–from Wall St. and Silicon Valley to Main St. and Tin Pan Alley. But the latter is not so grateful for the assistance of the former, and even as they accept federal dollars, Republicans vilify the source of their extra income.

Republican states in favor of smaller government were actually the biggest beneficiaries of big government.

For every dollar Mississippi sent to the federal government, it received $2.02; for every dollar New Jersey sent to the federal government, it saw only $0.61.

Yet Mississippi voters don’t berate their Senators and Representatives for being so effective at bringing home the bacon. In Mississippi, the 2007 budget was composed of $8.4 billion from state-source funds, and $5.9 billion from federal funds.

Over 40% of Mississippi’s state budget that year came from the federal government, and of that over half came from out-of-state taxpayers, including liberal elites in places like New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

Can we have it back please? (funnily enough, Gov. Ritchie’s Florida just about breaks even at $0.97 received per dollar sent. The other odd blue state, Texas, is also close at $0.94.)

Now while we’re at it-let’s take a real general, broad stroke look at 5 “RED: States and who they gave to the Union (yep the same one they tried unsuccessfully to break up back in the 1860’s). Here a list-a contribution they have made to the general welfare, the educational challenges, the intellectual values they have provided to this great county of theirs:

From the great state of MISSISSIPPI:
Red Barber sportscaster, Columbus
Theodore Bilbo public official, Poplarville
Jimmy Buffett singer, songwriter, Pascagoula
Brett Farve football, Kiln
Beth Henley playwright, actress, Jackson
Brandy Norwood singer,actress, McComb
Walter Payton football player, Columbia
Elvis Presley singer, actor, Tupelo
Charley Pride country singer, Sledge
Jerry Rice football player, Starkville
LeAnn Rimes country music, Jackson
Conway Twitty country music, Friars Point
Oprah Winfrey talk-show host, Kosciusko
Tammy Wynette country music star, Tupelo

From the ever popular, ALABAMA”
Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron baseball player, Mobile
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead actress, Huntsville
Bobby Goldsboro entertainer, Dothan
Emmy Lou Harris singer, Birmingham
Kate Jackson actress, Birmingham
Carl Lewis track athlete, Birmingham
Joe Louis boxer, Lexington
Willie Mays baseball player, Westfield
Jim Nabors actor, Sylacauga
Jesse Owens athlete, Danville
Jimmie Rodgers singer, Geiger
George Wallace governor, Clio
Heather Whitestone Miss America, Dothan
Hank Williams recording artist, Georgiana

From that peach of a state, GEORGIA:
James Bowie soldier, Burke County
Jim Brown actor, athlete, St. Simons Island
James E. Carter U.S. president, Plains
Ty Cobb baseball player, Narrows
Ossie Davis actor, writer, Cogdell
Pete Drake musician/record producer, Augusta
Amy Grant singer, Augusta
Joel Chandler Harris journalist, author, Eatonton
Roland Hayes singer, Curyville
Fletcher Henderson musician/songwriter, Cuthbert
Hulk Hogan professional wrestler, Augusta
John Henry Doc Holliday western hero, Griffin
Larry Holmes boxer, Cuthert
Bobby Jones golfer, Atlanta
DeForest Kelley actor, Atlanta
Gladys Knight singer, Atlanta
Brenda Lee singer, Lithonia
Johnny Mercer songwriter, Savannah
Margaret Mitchell author, Atlanta
John Robert Johnny Mize baseball player, Demorest
Jerry Reed singer/songwriter/actor, Atlanta
Burt Reynolds actor, Waycross
Little Richard singer, Macon
Jackie Robinson baseball player, Cairo
Tommy Roe singer/songwriter, Alpharetta
Billy Joe Royal singer, Valdosta
Nipsey Russell comedian, Atlanta
Ray Stevens singer/songwriter, Clarksdale
Clarence Thomas supreme court associate justice, Savannah
Travis Tritt singer/songwriter, Marietta
Trisha Yearwood singer, Monticello

Here’s the state that gave us the KKK-what other contribution has TENNESSEE made:
Eddy Arnold singer, Henderson
Chet Atkins guitarist, Lutrell
Jack Garnet Carter miniature golf, Sweetwater
Davy Crockett frontiersman, Green Cty
Sam Davis confederate scout, Smyrna
David G. Farragut first American admiral, Knoxville
Lester Flatt bluegrass musician, Overton Cty
Tennessee Ernie Ford singer, Bristol
Barbara Howar broadcaster, writer, Nashville
Estes Kefauver legislator, Madisonville
Sandra Locke actress, Shelbyville
Dolly Parton singer, Sevierville
Minnie Pearl singer, comedienne, Centerville
Grantland Rice sportswriter, Murfreesboro
Wilma Rudolph runner, St. Bethlehem
Cybil Shepherd actress, Memphis
Dinah Shore actress, singer, Winchester
Tina Turner singer, Brownsville
Alvin York World War I hero, Pall Mall

And finally that always progressive state of SOUTH CAROLINA
James Godfather Brown singer, Barnwell
James F. Byrnes senator, jurist, Charleston
John C. Calhoun statesman, Calhoun Mills
Joe Frazier prize fighter, Beaufort
Althea Gibson tennis champion, Silver
Dizzy Gillespie jazz trumpeter, Cheraw
Andrew Jackson U.S. president, Waxhaw
Francis Swamp Fox Marion general, Berkeley County
Robert Evander McNair governor, Cades
Ronald McNair astronaut, Lake City
John Rutledge jurist, Charleston
Strom Thurmond politician, Edgefield
William Westmoreland army chief of staff, Spartanburg
Vanna White TV personality, North Myrtle Beach

Is this starting to paint some sort of picture?

Let’s look at a few BLUE states

NEW YORK
George Abbott stage producer, Forestville
George Babcock inventor, Unadilla Forks
Maria Callas soprano, NYC
Willis Haviland Carrier inventor, Angola
Paddy Chayefsky playwright, NYC
Bruce Cooper Clark general, Adams
Peter Cooper industrialist, philanthropist, NYC
Aaron Copland composer, Brooklyn
Agnes de Mille choreographer, NYC
George Eastman inventor, Waterville
Millard Fillmore U.S. president, Locke
George Gershwin composer, Brooklyn
Jackie Gleason comedian, actor, Brooklyn
Edward Hopper painter, Nyack
Julia Ward Howe poet, social reformer, NYC
Washington Irving author, NYC
Henry James author, NYC
John Jay jurist, NYC
Billy Joel singer, composer, Hicksville
Jerome Kern composer, NYC
Victor Lasky author, Liberty
Chico, Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo Marx comedians, NYC
Herman Melville author, NYC
Ogden Nash poet, Rye
Eugene O’Neill playwright, NYC
George Pullman inventor, Brocton
John D. Rockefeller industrialist, Richford
Norman Rockwell painter, illustrator, NYC
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt reformer, humanitarian, NYC
Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. president, Hyde Park
Theodore Roosevelt U.S. president, NYC
Jonas Salk polio researcher, NYC
Margaret Sanger birth control, Corning
Leland Stanford railroad magnate, Watervliet
Barbara Stanwyck actress, Brooklyn
Rise Stevens mezzo-soprano, NYC
Barbra Streisand singer, actress, NYC
Louis Comfort Tiffany painter, craftsman, NYC
Martin Van Buren U.S. president, Kinderhook
George Westinghouse Jr. inventor, Central Bridge
Edith Wharton author, NYC
Walt Whitman poet, West Hills
Frank Winfield Woolworth merchant, Rodman

MASSACHUSETTS
John Adams 2nd U.S. president, Braintree
John Quincy Adams 6th U.S. president, Braintree
Samuel Adams patriot, Boston
Horatio Alger author, Revere
Susan B. Anthony woman suffragist, Adams
F. Lee Bailey defense attorney, Waltham
Clara Barton American Red Cross founder, Oxford
Leonard Bernstein conductor, Lawrence
Harold Stephen Black inventor, Leominster
William Cullen Bryant poet, editor, Cummington
Luther Burbank horticulturalist, Lancaster
John Chapman / Johnny Appleseed nurseryman, Leominster
William D. Coolidge inventor, Hudson
John Singleton Copley painter, Boston
E. E. Cummings poet, Cambridge
Cecil B. DeMille film director, Ashfield
Emily Dickinson poet, Amherst
Ralph Waldo Emerson philosopher, poet, Boston
Benjamin Franklin statesman, scientist, Boston
Buckminster Fuller architect, educator, Milton
Robert Hutchings Goddard rocketry, Worcester
John Hancock statesman, Braintree
Nathaniel Hawthorne author, Salem
Oliver Wendell Holmes poet, Cambridge
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. jurist, Boston
Elias Howe inventor, Spencer
Helen Hunt Jackson writer, Amherst
John F. Kennedy U.S. president, Brookline
Horace Mann educator, Franklin
Sharon Christa McAuliffe teacher, astronaut, Framingham
Samuel F. B. Morse painter, inventor, Charlestown
Edgar Allan Poe writer, Boston
Paul Revere silversmith, Revolutionary War figure, Boston
Dr. Seuss Theodore Geisel author, illustrator, Springfield
Henry David Thoreau author, Concord
James McNeill Whistler painter, Lowell
Eli Whitney inventor, Westborough

PENNSYLVANIA
Edward Goodrich Acheson inventor, Washington
Louisa May Alcott author, Germantown
Maxwell Anderson playwright, Atlantic
Samuel Barber composer, West Chester
John Barrymore actor, Philadelphia
James Buchanan U.S. president, Mercersburg
Rachel Carson biologist, author, Springdale
Bill Cosby actor, Philadelphia
Jimmy Dorsey band leader, Shenandoah
Tommy Dorsey band leader, Mahanoy Plane
W. C. Fields comedian, Philadelphia
Stephen Foster composer, Pittsburgh
Robert Fulton inventor, Lancaster County
Martha Graham choreographer, Pittsburgh
Alexander Haig secretary of state, Bala-Cynwyd
Marilyn Horne mezzo-soprano, Bradford
Lee Iacocca auto executive, Allentown
Robinson Jeffers poet, Pittsburgh
Gene Kelly dancer, actor, Pittsburgh
S. S. Kresge merchant, Bald Mount
Mario Lanza actor, singer, Philadelphia
George C. Marshall five-star general, Uniontown
George McClellan general, Philadelphia
Margaret Mead anthropologist, Philadelphia
Andrew Mellon financier, Pittsburgh
Robert E. Peary explorer, Cresson
Betsy Griscom Ross flagmaker, Philadelphia
B. F. Skinner psychologist, Susquehanna
Gertrude Stein author, Allegheny
James Stewart actor, Indiana
John Updike author, Shillington
Honus Wagner baseball player, Carnegie
Fred Waring band leader, Tyrone
Anthony Wayne military officer, Waynesboro
Andrew Wyeth painter, Chadds Ford

NEW JERSEY

Charles Addams cartoonist, Westfield
Edwin Aldrin astronaut, Montclair
William Count Basie band leader, Red Bank
William J. Brennan jurist, Newark
Aaron Burr political leader, Newark
James Fenimore Cooper author, Burlington
Stephen Crane writer, Newark
Helen Gahagan Douglas representative, Boonton
Allen Ginsberg poet, Newark
William Frederick Halsey, Jr. admiral, Elizabeth
Alfred Joyce Kilmer poet, New Brunswick
Alfred C. Kinsey zoologist, Hoboken
Dorothea Lange photographer, Hoboken
Jerry Lewis comedian, film director, Newark
Anne Morrow Lindbergh author, Englewood
Norman Mailer author, Long Branch
Patricia McBride ballerina, Teanick
Dorothy Parker author, West Bend
Paul Robeson singer, actor, Princeton
Philip Milton Roth author, Newark
Ruth St. Denis dancer, choreographer, Newark
Antonin Scalia jurist,Trenton
Norman Schwarzkopf army general, Trenton
Frank Sinatra singer, actor, Hoboken
Bruce Springsteen musician, Freehold
Alfred Stieglitz photographer, Hoboken
Albert Payson Terhune journalist, author, Newark
William Henry Vanderbilt financier, New Brunswick
William Carlos Williams physician, poet, Rutherford
Edmund Wilson literary critic, author, Red Bank

‘Nuff said?

Not quite:

Here’s the RED and Blue Educational report card while we are at it:
Student Performance
Top
1. Vermont
2. Massachusetts
3. Florida
4. New Hampshire
5. New York

Bottom
51. South Carolina
50. West Virginia
49. Michigan
48. New Mexico
47. Louisiana