Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

There's a really simple reason why unemployment is higher in red states:  Republicans fired far more state and local employees in order to pay for additional tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, which...surprise...did not create additional jobs!

Nearly all of the job losses took place at the state and local level, and they were most severe in a handful of GOP-controlled states. In other words, erosion of public sector employment isn’t a problem affecting the entire country equally—it’s a problem in particular states, thanks to very particular legislators. As the following chart shows, seven states laid off more than 2.5 percent of their own state and local workforce. Other states lost, on average, less than half a percent of their workforce.




Of the eleven states in which Republicans came into power in 2010 – Alabama, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – five were among the seven states that lost more than 2.5 percent of their workforce from December 2010 to December 2011. The remaining 42 states lost an average 0.5 percent (there is no data for Mississippi).

So yeah.  It's been a nightmare for these states because the GOP fired hundreds of thousands of people to pay for more tax cuts for really rich people and businesses.

Do we get it yet, America?