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I've been wonking out a bit over this figure from the Rockefeller Institute, showing rich states in the Northeast heavily subsidizing Trump states. What underlies it? 1/ 
It's actually pretty simple. Take a cross-section of states, excluding DC, VA, MD bc of federal government and AK bc it's weird. Look at federal outlays and receipts per capita versus income per capita 2/
The feds spend slightly more per capita in poor states, presumably bc of means-tested programs like Medicaid and food stamps (and the Medicaid formula also means the feds pay a higher proportion in poor states) 3/
Of course, this means that poor states receive much more federal money as a % of income. Meanwhile, rich states pay more in federal taxes -- a lot more, around 1.4% more for each 1% rise in income, so that the proportion of income rises too 4/
The result is that we engage in huge redistribution to poor states. This redistribution doesn't just support incomes, it supports jobs: people spend that money on health care, social services, retail. We don't explicitly aid declining regions, but in practice we do, massively 5/
The irony, of course, is that voters in these states support a political party that is determined to destroy this whole system. A low-tax, low-benefit federal government would basically leave WV, KY, AL, MI economic wastelands 6/
