Tennessee as a MAGA Lab

One of the things we often hear about the rather crazy state-vs-federal government system of the USA is that the states can serves as “test incubators” for public policy and we can have real-world demonstrations of the effects of policy decisions. Tennessee should be a great way to gauge MAGA policy because the state already implements so much of it. Lets go through a few items.

Taxes. Tennessee must be very close to the MAGA ideal on taxes. The State has no income tax. Instead, it raises a very large part of the income needed to operate state functions from the highest sales tax in the country. While there are some states that also have high sales taxes, none of them charge it on every leaf of lettuce a person might want to put in their grocery cart. And since that’s not enough to replace what other states get from their income taxes, Tennessee simply has less money to spend on things its citizens actually do need.

Healthcare. Being a true MAGA paradise, Tennessee refuses to accept the federal dollars it could receive to expand Medicare/Medicaid benefits to the poor. My hair cutter was a MAGA supporter before MAGA existed and he celebrated with a whoop-de-doo because Tennessee gave him the right to stop paying for the ACA (which because he was a low-earner cost him $50/month). I’m sure he’d love to thank the Orange Nemesis personally, but he can’t because he died of COVID. He could probably have been saved but having no healthcare coverage, he delayed going to the hospital until it was too late.

Where does all this get Tennessee in the national healthcare stats? Well, according to the most recent survey, Tennessee ranks 47th in life expectancy–with the lower ranked states all competing for MAGA honors. But who needs to live long in a MAGA paradise?

Education. Tennessee is 8th from the bottom of the state list in teacher salaries. It is below average in most other educational measures. Part of that may be related to the state legislators being below average in educational attainment. As long as you’re OK with below average, you get your money’s worth in Tennessee.

Crime and Capital Punishment Being a MAGA paradise, Tennessee loves the death penalty. That should take care of all our crime problems, right? Sadly, Tennessee is near the bottom once again–more murders here than 42 other states.

It isn’t all bad. It’s just mediocre. Tennessee is not a good place to live among the US states in just about any category. Everywhere we look, many other states do much better.  Maybe that’s because they have more financial resources to work with.