Spending

Using states as experiments to determine national policy is considered helpful in setting up national policy. The "laboratories of democracy" concept, popularized by Justice Louis Brandeis, allows U.S. states to test innovative social and economic policies without risking the entire nation 39 states currently have one party control of the governor, state senate, state house and all state wide offices, 23 Republican, 16 democrat and 11 with divide government. The biggest three democratic states by population are California, New York and Illinois and the biggest republican states are Texas, Florida and Georgia. The three democratic states have a combined total debt of $2.4 trillion and the three republican states at $130 billion about 1/20 as much. The current budget for the three democratic states is $658 billion and the three republican states add up to $324 billion. Both groups have similar populations with the democratic states at 71 million and the republican states at 66 million. The top income tax rate in the three democratic states averages 9.4% and the average for the republican states is 2%. The federal government with a $37 trillion debt is much like the democratic states. This is the result spending more than income.