Anger at Washington..... with hands out!

In the midst of all this anger toward the Federal Government (and there are many reasons to be angry), I wondered what data there might be to set along side this anger.  The latest data I could find is for 2005 for "federal spending per tax dollar by state" and it is very interesting.  See the table below (click to enlarge).

So, New Mexico and Mississippi received the largest amount of Federal money per tax dollar, but there are many other states in "good company," as they say.  The Metropolitan Transportation Commission used this data to create an illustrative graph (see below, click to enlarge).

Of course, the fact that you receive much more in Federal spending than you pay in taxes is no reason not to be critical of the federal government.  It does, however, make one wonder if much "anger" is offered without recognition of the extent to which states and communities are often great benefactors (I have blogged on this before) of the same organizations and programs they claim to so despise.  It reminds me of those people screaming about "government takeover of healthcare" while themselves being covered by Medicare.