What Works and What Doesn’t: State Economies
(This is part of the script for the latest episode of my podcast, “Consider This!”. You can listen to it on the website, or subscribe to it in iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Blubrry, Player.fm, or the podcast app of your choice.)
Sometimes people ask what the real difference is between the Republicans and Democrats, and sometimes, for certain issues, I’m inclined to agree; not much. However, when it comes to promoting economic growth, there’s certainly a trend that favors one over the other.
It’s been said that the states are the laboratories of American democracy. Though more and more autonomy has been taken from them by the federal government, there is still enough that one can look across the country from sea to shining sea and see what works and what doesn’t. So what has the government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis told us about the year 2013?
Here were the top 10 states in GDP growth:
- North Dakota — 9.7 percent
- Wyoming — 7.6 percent
- West Virginia — 5.1 percent
- Oklahoma — 4.2 percent
- Idaho — 4.1 percent
- Colorado — 3.8 percent
- Utah — 3.8 percent
- Texas — 3.7 percent
- South Dakota — 3.1 percent
- Nebraska — 3.0 percent
This was all while the nation’s GDP growth was just 1.8 percent. Tom Blumer writing at the NewsBusters website noted that only Colorado and West Virginia could be considered something other than deep-red states — and despite having several prominent Democrats in statewide and national office, they both arguably lean red.
And let’s not forget, as I covered back in February, that Wisconsin, under Republican Governor Scott Walker, went from running a deficit to a $1 billion surplus by cutting taxes.
In all of this, you’d think that someone would have predicted such an economic outcome from these policies. Oh wait, they did, and those people are called “conservatives”. So if you indeed see what works and what doesn’t, and still ignore it, you might be a Democrat.
Filed under: Conservative • Consider This! • Democrats • Doug • Economics & Taxes • Podcasts • Politics
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