Josh Marshall: Blue states are essentially funding a war against themselves

[BeyondGeography]

Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will begin “winding down” FEMA after this year’s Hurricane season and, perhaps the more significant statement, that he will begin distributing disaster aid directly from the President’s office. In other words, disaster assistance will be the President’s personal gift, an assist for friends and those who display loyalty. It’s part of the broader pattern we can see across the horizon: Trump takes the policing and military powers of the United States and the national tax revenues (drawn disproportionately from the blue states) and uses it to make war on states he considers enemies.

This has always been the centerpiece of Trumpism even more than authoritarianism, a kind of fiscal warlordism. Disaster relief dollars are a relatively minor expenditure. But we see it aimed at universities, the cut off of funds generally to California and the forced deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. The blue states essentially fund the war against themselves.

It’s important to note that the fact that blue states disproportionately fund the federal government only aggravates the more general pattern, which is targeting states viewed as domestic enemies.

It’s not too much to say that this puts the whole national civil compact under immense and perhaps unsupportable stress. Blue states disproportionately fund the federal government. But what they get back or whether they get anything back is up to Donald Trump.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/funding-the-war-on-yourselves