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The first heat map shows the states with a budget deficit (the bigger the dot, the bigger the shortfall). The second is the 2008 November election map. With a few exceptions, there is quite the correlation between blue states and budget deficits. The biggest deficits are also in the bluest states (with the most Democrats).
State Budget Shortfalls
2008 Election Results
- Wednesday Hero: Cpl. Reynold Armand - July 8th, 2009
- Gov Doyle to ride off in to the sunset as... The head of the Peace Corps? - June 25th, 2009
- Debate Via Email: Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold and Obama's Socialized Healthcare - June 19th, 2009
- Obama's Socialized Healthcare: A Debate - June 18th, 2009
- 99 Wisconsinites Open Carry at Picnic - May 20th, 2009
They apparently do not teach logic at Marquette anymore.
Historically, Democrats are more likely to increase spending than Republicans.
Spending increases likely lead to eventual budget deficits.
Therefore, Democrat-led states are more likely to experience budget deficits.
I think the argument is reasonably convincing.
Moreover, Brandon did say correlation and not causation. The picture shows an undeniable correlation.
one potential problem would be that national politics (blue state v. red state) does not correspond to who controls the state government to directly. Without bothering to do research here is a wiki link with control of state legislatures.
Additionally Nevada and California both blue states both have GOP Governors.
Chuck, if life was really that simple, than we could all be statisticians. Unfortunately, both you and Brandon don’t understand multivariate regression. Assuming there is strong evidence that Democratic leadership increases government spending more than your Republican legislature and that budget shortfalls can be tied directly to this phenomena, assuming that, there are still a billion variables that can be affecting the overall regression equation. One of which, staring right in your face, is population density. I could go on, but than you think you already know the answer. Anything that starts with Dem, and ends with cratic is evil, corrupt,and destroying humanity. There is no middle ground or subtly. But thankfully such dangerous, stupid, simplistic thinking is on its way out, so the real adults can take over.
Good day to you, sir
If you perform a sum of least squares regression between a politician’s rating from the Americans for Tax Reform and the size of their American flag lapel pin in centimeters the result is a system demonstrating the relationship between Democratic leadership and budget deficits to a 95% confidence interval.
I assume you are using sarcasm or that you are trying to make statistical analysis seem illegitimate.
Good case Brandon… unfortunately there are budget short falls in Republican controlled states as well… just depends on the size of those governments and if they spend any extra money. Compared to Wisconsin, Texas is a real dump… but they have no budget deficit. The problem with Wisconsin’s budget is Transportation funding. Unfortunately Wisconsin has gone on a spending spree in the last 10 years on building new freeways that need to be maintained!! Wisconsin has more roads than we ever had and the population hasn’t increased much. There are other areas of concern in the budget as well. The Doyle Strategy has been to cut some areas that aren’t politically sensitive and move money around to others… maybe raise a few fees here and there to compensate while not raising property or income taxes. Newspapers and media will never report and now there are no checks and balances since its controlled by Democrats. The Doyle strategy has worked for re-election in the past, and it could again in 2010.
Its not the message… its that the message isn’t being communicated.
Personally, I believe both parties spend too much. The last fiscally conservative president we had was John F. Kennedy. (Ironic, since his brother loves to $pend. The last fiscally conservative Republican president was Warren Harding. He wasn’t afraid to cut spending.
Thank you for making some sense.
SPET3R Says: Compared to Wisconsin, Texas is a real dump… but they have no budget deficit.
What do you mean by, “Texas is a real dump”?
Mark… in the last couple of years in Texas Schools have been on the decline, crime is on the rise, immigration is out of hand, and the road system is clogged with no money to fix it. The positive of Texas is that it has no budget deficit… but the economy and population have both grown significantly to make up for any deficit it could have had. Wisconsin on the other hand, the economy has grown but the population is beginning to flat line.
So based on some incredibly generic and non-specific accusations offered by you (with no source and with no comparison to to other states in order to provide context) we are to accept that Texas is a “real dump”?
I suggest you choose your words more carefully in the future.
I made the following comment yesterday and it was never published so I will attempt to share it again:
I direct readers’ attention to a recent report by the Financial Times in which it ranked which “US states are suffering the most in the current economic and financial crisis.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/def7.....ck_check=1
Texas topped their list of states that are doing the best.
Texas has the:
- highest personal income growth rate of any state.
- highest employment growth rate of any state.
- highest state-GDP growth rate of any state.
- 18th lowest foreclosure rate (for comparison, here is where the other large states rank: CA, 49th; NY, 33rd; FL, 50th; IL, 43rd; PA, 19th; OH, 45th; MI, 47th; GA, 42nd; NC, 14th)
All in all, quite a dump.
Texas has good college football teams. I wish Tech could have played better against Oklahoma.
[...] it was Sherburn M. Becker. This shows the exact same phenomenon that I illustrated with blue states and budget deficits. As Dave Barry says, “Democrats have the management skills of celery”. Even more [...]