My overall income tax is far greater than red state guy. He may pay more in fed taxes, but the needy in his state get a greater per capita share of the federal booty in return. The needy in my state get more locally funded benefits.

The overall tax burden on the blue state tax payer is far greater than the burden on the red state guy in the same fed bracket, even if he isn't getting the benefit of a deduction for the SALT, because he never paid it (or paid less). And his state sucks at the federal teet far more than mine does.

You asked at the start who subsidizes who, and the truth is, however inconvenient for you, blue subsidizes red. Which will continue to be true until the red stops trying to hold off the future with silly (yet potentially very damaging) populism.

Edit: your second argument about my going to Albany to complain about their social services falls down as long as the red states continue to suck at the federal teet.

But my complaints really aren't about lost deductions or even my own likely increased tax bill. It's the bullshit that this is simplification. It is a massive new complication. And it's really about politics.


[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 12/20/2017 12:47PM]