One thing that makes the United States of America unique is that it is made up of 50 individual states. These states share many similarities with how they are run, but no two are identical.
While all state governments are modeled after the federal government, with three branches — executive, legislative and judicial — they still vary greatly.
States differ in how they tax their citizens, the size of their legislatures, term limits, use of the filibuster and much more.
States are free to adapt ideas from neighboring states when something works.
For instance, the initiative and referendum process — which we just voted to leave alone — began in Missouri in 1908. Since then, 24 states allow citizens to propose statutes or constitutional amendments for a vote.
Another idea that other states have adopted from Missouri is the Missouri Plan. Originally the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, also known as the merit plan, is a method for selecting judges. As of 2024, 14 states use the method, which originated in 1940 in the Show Me State.
If another state’s approach is seen as a hindrance, another state can refuse to adopt it.
Missourians need to observe and learn from failures. That brings me to the subject of this week’s column, the affordability scam.
Affordability is the watchword used by Democrats for this year’s midterm elections. But studies show that the least affordable states to live in are blue states controlled by Democrats.
In 2024 the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) run by the U.S. Department of Commerce ranked states by price level — read affordability.
With the United States as a whole rated at 100, the ten worst states to live in for affordability are all progressive blue states: California 110.7, Hawaii 110.0, New Jersey 108.8, New York 107.9, Washington 107.0, Massachusetts 105.8, Maryland 105, New Hampshire 104.2, Connecticut 103.6 and Oregon 103.4.
On the other end of the scale are the red states of Arkansas 86.9, Mississippi 87.0, Iowa 87.8, Oklahoma 87.8, Louisiana 88.2, South Dakota 88.6, Alabama 88.8, North Dakota 89.0, West Virginia 89.5 and Kansas 90.1.
Missouri’s rating is 90.8, between Tennessee and Kentucky.
Inflation also affects affordability. The Bloomberg inflation map — using data from January — shows that blue states are once again on the high end. The red state of Texas registered deflation at -0.3 percent.
Nick Freitas on his blog “The Why Minutes,” entitled Why Blue States Are So Expensive says, “There’s a reason this pattern of high cost of living and high inflation seems to correlate so strongly with blue America, and that’s because progressivism is inherently inflationary.”
“Just think about it for a moment,” said Freitas, “when the government each year spends more and more money per person than it did before, that difference has to come from somewhere.”
Freitas gives Washington state as one example. In 2013, Washington’s state budget was $80.4 billion. This year it’s projected to be $173 billion. Taking inflation and a population increase of 14 percent into consideration, the budget should have only increased by 50 percent. Instead, it rose by 116 percent.
To cover these expenses, governments have to raise taxes.
“Doing this,” said Freitas, “drives up the cost of living for everyone else who is not receiving all of this government money.”
Another example of progressive policies making living less affordable is Seattle, Washington’s gig worker law. Enacted in Jan. 2024, the law requires app-based programs to pay drivers a minimum wage of $26 per hour. The results were immediate. DoorDash reported a decline of 30,000 orders in the first two weeks.
A Carnegie Mellon study found that the most active drivers had no net increase in monthly earnings.
Frietas points out that housing, insurance, transportation, electricity, and gas are all more expensive in blue states, and “particularly in blue cities in blue states,” making the average blue state 13 percent more expensive, as of 2023, than the average red state.
It does not stop there; according to statistics Freitas referenced, the unemployment rate in blue states is 15 percent higher than in red states.
In the end, Progressive Democrats want your vote so they can enact policies that will increase the cost of living. That is the scam.
