Perhaps Republicans are on to something. Perhaps it is time to dramatically shrink the size of the federal government. Rather than sending so many tax dollars to Washington and then distributing the money back to states to pay for things like Medicaid, highway work, social safety net programs, and highway work, just keep that money in the states and let the states deal with those issues — or not.

Fiscally speaking, such a change in approach would work well for Connecticut.

Looking at an analysis by the Rockefeller Institute of Government of 2019 federal spending, Connecticut that year sent $14,915 per capita in federal tax dollars to Washington and got $12,515 per capita back. That is a net loss of $2,400 per capita, ranking the state first among states paying more than they receive.

The state that benefits most from the existing approach? It is Kentucky, home of Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is forever complaining about federal spending. In 2019, Kentucky received $19,488 per capita in federal aid but shipped to Washington only $6,750 per capita in federal taxation, a $12,739 per capita win for Kentuckians, according to the Rockefeller Institute analysis.

I used 2019 dollars because the torrent of federal aid to states to deal with the Covid pandemic temporarily skewed the numbers. But no matter when the spending is analyzed or how, the takeaway is the same. Red states - meaning Republican dominated states - by in large get back far more in federal money than they send out in tax dollars. Blue states - meaning Democratic dominated states - generally do not do as well via this exchange. And as noted some, like Connecticut (and nearby New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey) experience a net loss.

This Republican hypocrisy came to mind again in recent weeks as the slim Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives was again threatening to ruin the economy and cause needless chaos by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, unless it got the spending cuts it wanted and no increases in taxes. For voters back home, these House Republicans want to give the appearance of controlling federal spending, but they don’t really want to turn off that tap. That would be devastating.

Consider statistics compiled by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. It looked at what percentage of federal aid made up a state’s total budgetary revenue. “The states where federal aid made up the largest share of general revenue were Montana (46.1%), Wyoming (44.5%), Louisiana (43.7%), (and) Mississippi (43.3%),” writes the foundation.

Those, of course, are conservative Republican states where politicians win elections by complaining about federal spending.

The MoneyGeek website regularly updates this exchange of wealth. While the rankings may shift, the overall trend remains the same.

“Democratic-leaning blue states tend to be wealthier and pay more to the federal government than they get. In contrast, Republican-leaning red states tend to have less wealth and receive more federal government funds than they pay. In the MoneyGeek rankings, 7 of the 10 most dependent states are considered red states,” it states.

Overall, it found, Republican-leaning states get back $1.05 for every dollar they send to Washington, Democrat-leaning states just 85 cents. The irony is that the mostly deeply red states have the largest dependence on those federal dollars.

If this really did happen, if government spending was reordered to keep more money in the states and let them deal with social problems as they saw fit, the struggling poor in the red states would suffer even more. It could be viewed as Democrats abandoning their constituencies in those states, as small as those constituencies may be.

But it could also well cause a political reordering. It would make voters in places like Louisiana and Mississippi realize how dependent they were on those federal dollars. They could decide that Democrats, with their ideals of better distributing wealth from the rich to the struggling, are on to something. Right now, many of these folks vote against their own financial interests, electing Republicans that rail against federal handouts while demonizing Democrats who are largely responsible for the aid their states clearly depend on.

Democrats have been politically outplayed. They continue to allow Republicans to have it both ways — criticizing federal spending and programs while representing states that depend on that spending and those programs. The party of FDR only has itself to blame for that.

Paul Choiniere is the former editorial page editor of The Day, now retired. He can be reached at paulchoiniere@yahoo.com.