How do you feel about this list of how much is spent in each state in federal dollars?

Transparency is a good thing.

Would be (more) interesting if they split out the departments. That is, places with large defense spending will be pushed up on the list, although much of that is not as state specific.

Also, a little unclear why DC was at the bottom (yes, I know it’s not a state, but…)

@grumpyfish good point I had not thought of military spending. I guess they put DC at the bottom, because it is not a state, but it should have been listed by dollar amount like the rest in my opinion. Do you think the number is high because our government officials meet there, or because of the poverty? I was shocked to see Alaska got a bunch of money when Palin had bragged about giving tax money back to the people of that state. I was thinking that maybe some less populated states look out of whack because of interstate hwy funding maybe?

New Mexico is #1, huh? I can’t imagine that being anything other than military spending.

For my old state, I’m sure a lot of that money goes to the Nuclear, Chemical and other engineering departments of my alma mater (UW-Madison), as well as to the Psychology Department. When I was a student there, I heard many rumors that the DOD used the Psych Department to do a lot of Psy Ops testing. Seeing that it’s a land grant school, the UW is probably not in a position to turn the money down without serious repercussions to the rest of the UW System. :(

@aprilsimnel my sister went to UW Madison

I think it shows that poor states, either by small population or high poverty level, which do not contribute a significant amount to the federal budget, get a disproportionate amount of federal spending, because of how the federal dollar is spent. Other than interest on debt, that dollar largely goes to Health and Human Services (social security, medicare, etc) and the Defense Department. So, I would think a state loaded with retirees (disproportionately to income producers) or defense programs would be near the top of the list (I think New Mexico fits this scenario well). DC has tons of spending for politician and federal department salaries and maintenance of federal buildings and monuments but does not contribute significantly to the federal budget. See ya….Gary/wtf

Think poverty, age and military. Those are where the most federal dollars are. Mandatory programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are the major programs for the poor and elderly.

New Mexico has a lot of poor people, a lot of retirees, and a lot of military installations.

[edit—oops, I see wtf already said all this]

If you know anyone from Rhode Island, give them a pat on the back for me!