New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Senator Rand Paul are currently in the middle of a feud. Well, I guess it’s not much of a feud for Rand Paul, considering he’s getting his ass kicked.

It all started last week when Christie criticized libertarians for supporting dangerous policies such as isolationism. In response, Paul took a swipe at Governor Christie and New Jersey on Fox News this past Monday claiming:

“If he cared about protecting this country maybe he wouldn’t be in this gimme, gimme, gimme all the money you have in Washington or don’t have, and he’d be a little more fiscally responsive.”

Paul was referring to Christie asking for and receiving federal aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a severe storm that devastated parts of New Jersey in 2012.

So, to Paul, Christie is fiscally irresponsible for securing critical aid in order for his state to rebuild what Sandy destroyed. That was a major mistake for Paul to make because on Tuesday, Christie fired back and scored a direct hit and in the process reminded us all that most conservative states are welfare states.

During the press conference, Christie blasted Paul for daring to question the fiscal responsibility of New Jersey when he is the Senator of Kentucky, a welfare state.

“I find it interesting that Senator Paul is accusing us of having a gimme, gimme, gimme attitude toward federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state, we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington. And interestingly Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they sent to Washington. So if Senator Paul wants to start looking at where he is going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start looking at cutting the pork barrel spending he brings home to Kentucky at a $1.51 on every dollar and not look at New Jersey where we get 61 cents for every dollar. Maybe Senator Paul could deal with that when he is trying to deal with the reduction of spending on the federal side, but I doubt he would because most Washington politicians only care about bringing home the bacon so they can get reelected.”

Here’s the video:

Are you shocked, too? Rand Paul accuses New Jersey of being a welfare state and Republican Chris Christie hits him back with actual facts that reveal the total opposite. In 2007, the Tax Foundation ran the numbers and found that for every dollar that Kentucky sends to Washington in taxes, it gets $1.51 in return. That ranks conservative Kentucky the ninth most parasitic state in the nation. New Jersey, on the other hand, only gets back 61 cents of every dollar it sends to Washington, which is the least among all 50 states. The point is, New Jersey takes less federal money than Kentucky and is therefore a donor state, as Christie rightfully claims, while Rand Paul’s Kentucky is a welfare state.

While Christie’s takedown of Rand Paul is something we should all applaud, the New Jersey Governor also just helped remind us that conservative states are the real welfare states. For many years now, conservatives have referred to blue states as lazy, while bragging about how fiscally responsible their own states are. When they say these things, conservatives are lying through their teeth. Nine of the ten poorest states are located in the conservative South and those states only get by because of the extravagant amount of federal cash they rake in. Blue states, meanwhile, get less money back in return for every dollar in taxes paid. In short, blue states have been supporting red states all this time. Without the federal cash that is redirected from blue states, red states would collapse because their elected officials (Republicans) are fiscally IRRESPONSIBLE and RECKLESS. And because of that recklessness, conservative states are harming the nation as a whole.

Senator Rand Paul enjoys crowing about how fiscally responsible he supposedly is, but because he attacked Chris Christie and New Jersey, Paul will have to take that crow and eat it. This is a smackdown that’s worthy of being bookmarked as a reminder of how hypocritical and fiscally reckless Rand Paul and his fellow Tea Partiers are, especially as we move closer to the 2014 and 2016 elections.