The states paying legislative bills

According to Rockefeller Institute of government, these states pay a total of 95 billion extra, a transfer to the rest of the states.    Connecticut , New Jersey , Massachusetts ,New York ,North Dakota ,Illinois ,Nebraska , New Hampshire , Washington ,Colorado

The total value of government payments come to 3.7 trillion. he total imbalance come to about 560 billion, the net transfer between states, the balance of payments.   So we invest 16% of out budget in state to state transfers.

But the Rockefeller numbers do not include seigniorage taxes which reached 90 billion in the last cycle and will certainly exceed that this cycle.  Who pays that fee relative to the states? It is a non legislative tax handled through the market process of banks, We do not have the answer, but it will exceed 90 billion this cycle.

California is now a break even state because of the tax battle in 2010.  Note we have a couple of small states in this list of payers.

Hw much of that imbalance is due to ear marks? Likely half, the other half are safety net programs.   So my theory is to take 5% of the budget, say 150 billion, and just hand that out to the state capitals once per budget cycle.  Vermont, which is in the middle of the pack for handouts should be getting 3 billion in cash on a yearly basis.  Thus they do not have to compete on earmark prowess which is what Kentucky does.

Fair? Not according to proportional democracy, but we ain't that, we have to pay the subsidy, let us just formalize is and dump the earmarks. The idea is to live within the system as philosophizing about it only costs more. We cannot change nor philosophize the Constitution.