Surprising

In the last post, I mentioned that “I’d like to see a break down by district and party.” So I got the state-by-state data from Taxpayers for Common Sense and then aggregated to get a Red/Blue state breakdown of the earmarks:

Surprisingly, the difference is actually very small, about 2.4% more per capita for the Red states. Yet I know that I’ve read a number of stories claiming that the House Republicans in particular have shut off the flow of pork into Democratic districts (anyone have a cite for this?). If those claims are true, the gap must be across districts within a state. The Taxpayers for Common Sense page linked above does allow you to click on a state and see the earmark by earmark breakdown, so someone with a lot of time on their hands could add district level population and voting data to create a more accurate view of the Red/Blue breakdown of pork.

Note that this only applies to earmarks, which are a bit over $10.1 billion. If you itemize total federal spending, the Red states get about $1.12 per capital and the Blue get about $0.87 (based on 2002 data).

AB