Government Health Care: A Transfer Of Wealth From Dem To GOP States?
Here's a good question about the effects of any expansion of federal spending on health care, which is being opposed so strongly by conservatives: Could it actually result in more federal dollars headed to treat medical problems in the red states?
A newly-released Gallup survey measures healthy and unhealthy behavior by people in all the states.
The top 11 healthiest-behaving states are: Vermont, Hawaii, Montana, California, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware, Idaho, Wyoming and Oregon. The bottom 11 least healthy states: Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Illinois and Louisiana. (It apparently would have been top ten, but there are ties for the 10th position.)
So of the healthiest states, seven of them voted for Barack Obama. And of the least healthy states, seven voted for John McCain.
Keep in mind, this is even after you figure that the upper-Midwest, where Obama hails from and performed strongly, is a wasteland of deep-fried cheese curds and frozen custard.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Keep gummint's grubby hands off of my poutine!
August 18, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
"We were goin' to Canada for some French fries and gravy, sir."
August 18, 2009 10:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
No doubt these are exactly the kind of semi-racist, semi-sexist, patriarchal, mass-consuming wastelands that many in the healthier states would refuse to live in. And I speak as someone who has grown up in Texas. I have to say that the GOP is really dangerous to America in many ways for the simple refusal to be honest, to live up to their ideology and their lack of intellectual curiosity about life. But hey the foods pretty good down here!
August 18, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I miss Mission Burrito :(
August 18, 2009 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
As an aside, as I was being quite vitriolic in my last comment, I do think it is interesting that many conservatives that I have grown up around often talk about those in our society who do not help themselves. I common complaint here in Texas is about how they see Welfare recipients using their "Lonestar cards" (these are credit cards instead of food stamps, I know it may sound crazy but that is the way it is now days) to buy unhealthy items such as fatty foods or alcohol. I believe that this issue is much more about the south and the relationship that many conservatives have with their neighbors. So when you here about Welfare reform and you see the conservatives up in arms (from a national perspective) remember that what this is really about is regional reform. Many do not want to see their neighbors, whom they rightly or wrongly believe to be non-productive members of our society, get free handouts. This is also supportive by a strong religious current (many baptist) who will always readily quote the bible "give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime).
What if this so-called fight is really about the relationship our culture has within its own communities (especially the South)?
August 18, 2009 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
All I'm saying is, it's really hard to get good tex-mex in California.
August 18, 2009 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
JQ: Good thoughts.
mcc: I'm worried that you might vote for Palin if she was running on the chimichanga ticket.
Hell, if somebody named a party after a dish combining a tortilla, beans, cheese and spicy that might distract me if I was voting on an empty stomach. Maybe the Dems should rebrand as the "BBQ, beer and Barretts" party?
August 18, 2009 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Eric! Are you talkin to ME?
You librul elitist coaster! You'll get my cheese curds when you pull them from my cold, dead hands!
BTW, our beer is better, so pfft off.
August 18, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I lived in Madison, Wisconsin, for six years. I know of that which I speak.
August 18, 2009 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Deep fried cheese curds? I thought you were kidding! What is that, deep fried cottage cheese lumps? I'm not coming up with something that sounds the least bit palatable.
August 18, 2009 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh, honey. you don't even KNOW. picture, instead, cheddar cheese curds (as distinct from mere chunks of cheese), coated in yummy batter and then deep-fried. the coating becomes crispy and the interior gooey. try a basket with ranch.
fried cheese curds were almost always available at UW-Madison's student cafs. and people wonder why WI tops the obesity lists!
nom nom nom
August 19, 2009 12:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
"...So of the healthiest states, seven of them voted for Barack Obama. And of the least healthy states, seven voted for John McCain."
Have you ever noticed that people who make bad decisions tend to make a lot of them?
August 18, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've never been one for cutesy abbreviations. But I really did just laugh out loud.
August 18, 2009 10:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least now we understand why Republicans seem to have a vested interest in keeping people unhealthy!
August 18, 2009 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who's surprised at this? Red states also tend to be the poorest, yet they consistently vote to give big tax breaks to the wealthy. They get about $1.08 dollars back from the federal government for every dollar in taxes they send to DC, and then complain about the amount of taxes they send to DC. There's a word for people like this. The word is "sucker". If these nuts ever wake up the Republican party is doomed.
August 18, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your average is way off. It's more than 1.08 for alot of ruby red states. If you go state by state and correlate to ruby redness and the rubiest of red gets almost 2.00 for every dollar. Check out this link from 2005:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html
By the way, check out the bottom ten. Royal blue.
Pathetic.
August 18, 2009 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Might be worthy of getting on the front page:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/18/hitler-israel
That really needs to get on the Networks for people get an even better idea of how unhinged the Conservative Base is.
John
August 18, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't this transfer of wealth from Blue to Red states already happening?
August 18, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, Jersey Boy, you wanna throw down with the Midwest? We may suck down the curds and custard, but we aren't doing it in the shadow of myriad chemical factories....
August 18, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's it - I'm against the plan now. I had forgotten how grossly obese and unhealthy are so many more people in the Bible Belt. Let evolution (which they refuse to even consider, anyway) take its course. TX already stole enough money from CA via Enron, anyway. Let those racist, uneducated, close-minded Neanderthals reap the consequences of their unhealthy lifestyles and hate-filled existence.
August 18, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Evolution won't take care of it. These folks breed early and often.
August 18, 2009 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was funny.
August 18, 2009 8:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Abstinence only education is the surest path to early grandparentdom.
August 18, 2009 10:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I suspect the higher premature fatal heart attack and stroke rate in the frying belt may offset the wealth transfer effect somewhat.
August 18, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Less educated lower income Americans tend to be huge everywhere. Trust me - I just came home from the beach at Coney Island. (Yes that's right I know I'm making some assumptions) There are just more of them in those unhealthy states.
www.defendingthetruth.com/off-topic/618-education-levels-state.html
Frozen custard: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Substitute: French vanilla ice cream (it's the egg yolks)
August 18, 2009 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have New Mexico in the wrong list. We are among the LEAST health states, not the most healthy. Also, the measure is access to the elements of a healthy lifestyle (medical care, fresh fruit, etc.), not whether people actually lead healthy lives. New Mexicans have access to yummy but fatty food in an area where it's too hot to move for six months of the year.
August 18, 2009 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Three things, Eric:
1) Illinois isn't exactly the upper Midwest. If it were that wouldn't leave very much between there and the south that you could call the lower Midwest or just the Midwest.
2) I'm not sure how Gallup calculates it, but there's a bit of a discrepancy between your list of healthiest states and this one: Minnesota is ranked healthiest state again, in which "There were 21 factors, from infant mortality to obesity to cancer rates, that were compiled for the rankings."
3) Now if you're talking about Wisconsin, I think "wasteland of deep-fried cheese curds and frozen custard" is a pretty accurate description. Seriously, though, Madison's a beautiful city. Be nice to them.
August 18, 2009 8:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is not quite right.
It's a transfer of wealth from some of the wealthier people in Blue states (many or most of whom are Republicans) to poorer people in Red states (many of whom are Democrats)
The grouping by state confuses the issue that it is rightly a grouping by class.
August 18, 2009 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, that I could spend my last years in a "wasteland of deep-fried cheese curds and frozen custard." However, I am stuck amongst the crustacean-eating locavores of the West Coast, and I will have to wait until the Lord lifts me to Heaven...
August 19, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink