I quite agree that taxes out versus payments in doesn’t capture the whole story of who is paying for what.
But does put at least a significant dent in the notion that red states are financially supporting the blue states.
I think we are on the same page. My opinion is that we need to do whatever it takes to get those manufacturing jobs and infrastructure out of the blue states and into the red states, also if we could get an entertainment/news industry centered in Texas instead of California it could help us in education of the masses.
Speaking of education- we need some governors with sturdy spines to try and fix the educational system.
We need to be thinking 40 years out instead of four. Even if the nation goes into collapse before we can turn it around, we will at least have an infrastructure to rebuild.