Where the money goes, geographically

In light of recent news about federal spending, revenue, deficits, debt, and various political candidates' ideas about how to best handle these issues, I thought it would be interesting to create another blog post.

The map shown below depicts the 50 states in the US, colored to indicate the relationship between federal taxes paid by the populations of those states and the federal spending in each state.

If one considers federal taxes an investment, each color represents, in essence, a different level of return on investment.

When television pundits or political candidates refer to "redistribution of wealth" like some Boogey-man, this map shows (for the 2005 fiscal year) where the wealth is coming from (states colored in blue and green) and where it is going (states colored in orange and red).

Hopefully this provides some food for thought for anybody contemplating or debating the US government's finances.