Megan McArdle, Columnist

Think Carefully Before Cutting Off Subsidies to Red States

There are a few ways liberals could reduce the imbalance. But all of them play to conservatives' wishes.

True-blue New Jersey is a major donor to red states.

Photographer: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

They earn much less than they spend, and they're not even embarrassed about it. Others (richer, better educated, and more all-around dynamic) have to send their hard-earned money to Washington, while getting precious little back in return. But these folks? They gorge themselves on government benefits … they take and take and take … and then actually they have the cheek to complain about the system that keeps them in welfare dollars and Medicaid checks.

I am speaking, of course, of the red states.