The majority of the federal budget is payments to individuals not to work, not to plan, not to be a functioning member of society. That in itself destroys the notion that the states need the federal government to work.
Earlier in the thread I believe someone boiled down the real benefit to about 20% of what is outgoing.
Yet people pay Social Security Tax from Texas. People in Texas receive Social Security payments.
Is that a benefit? Depends on which side of the stick the brown is on.
Florida probably gets a lot of SS money for the people that retire there. Rather a lot work in NY, and retire in Florida. Is that a benefit to Florida? Is that a cost to NY?
Sounds to me like the economy is tightly entwined. If the retired person gets his SS delivered to Belize, which state benefits?
Perhaps we should figure out how to cut back on unconstitutional federal government spending before we decide on how many potential allies in that effort we want to drive off.