All talk, talk, talking points

I was surprised by Mike Korkowski’s erroneous belief that Illinois is a federal welfare state. Illinois, as a matter of fact, ranks near the bottom of federal welfare states, 46th, and sometimes 45th in the list of 50 states. In 2024’s top of the list in first place is the red welfare state of Alaska receiving the most federal welfare.

The fact is that red welfare states rank seven out of the top 10 consistently. There are 29 red states that get more federal welfare than Illinois. Republican Mitch McConnell loves to criticize blue states, despite his red welfare state of Kentucky being way ahead of Illinois in federal handouts, ranking third.

Through the years, numerous articles have been written about the red welfare states. Right-leaning Rockefeller Institute of Government and Forbes magazine have written numerous articles, and throughout the years, there has been little or no shift in the ranking with more red welfare states.

Many people get confused, not realizing that these articles state a “positive balance of payments” means that they get more welfare than they pay in, like the 29 red states. New York and California many times are mentioned as “negative balance of payments,” which means they pay in more to the federal government than they receive.

Mr. Korkowski needs to learn how to do research, not just recite more talking points.

JB Barla

Naperville