This is all the new GOP talking point to head off the second stimulus package that would further help individuals, companies, veterans, the United States Postal Service, and cities and states impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans are lining up to tsk tsk those darn blue states, what with their ridiculous ideas of getting disaster relief in a time of disaster.

Kansas’ other senator, Jerry Moran, echoed Sen. Pat Roberts above, “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of Kansas taxpayers to help states and localities to recover from their ill-advised poor judgment of spending more money than they are capable of affording.”

Florida, king of disaster relief, is in on the act.

x "It's not fair to the taxpayers of Florida. We sit here, we live within our means, and then New York, Illinois, California and other states don't. And we're supposed to go bail them out? That's not right," GOP Sen. Rick Scott tells poolers of sending more money to states — Burgess Everett (@burgessev) April 27, 2020

And of course, it’s coming straight from the top.

x Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2020

Shall we start with Kansas? Just last year, in the wake of massive and destructive flooding and hurricanes, the federal government sent $19 billion in disaster relief to the states of Kansas and Florida (among others). The vote? A bipartisan 354 to 58 in the House, and the no-votes weren’t Democrats! No, Democrats weren’t whining about “poorly run” red states who didn’t save for a rainy day. Nope. Democrats happily voted yes on disaster relief because we believe in the United States of America.

Even Moran, who suddenly is so concerned about disaster relief for blue states, was all excited about that government bailout: “I do not remember a time where flooding in my state has been worse . . . I urge you to approve this request.”

Does anyone remember when a deadly global pandemic has been worse in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and other states? I doubt even Moran is that old.

And Florida. Oh Florida. Land of hurricanes, Florida. Given that Scott was a former governor of the state, did he save up a rainy day fund to pay for disaster relief as the state gets increasingly hammered by hurricane after hurricane? That disaster bill above funded the reconstruction of Florida’s panhandle. And that was just 2019. In 2017, Florida got a significant chunk of a $50 billion rescue bill in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that hurricanes cost the economy $28 billion per year, the U.S. federal government picks up $18 billion of that tab, and 55% of that spending goes to Florida, 13% to Texas, and 9% to Louisiana (red state, red state, and red state). Thanks to climate change, that’s estimated to increase to $39 billion by 2075, So we’re talking annual bailouts to those gulf coast red states. And no Democrats were complaining about it, because we’re not assholes.

Then, of course, there’s the annual red state budgetary bailout. In 2018, Florida got $25 billion more in those sweet, sweet federal dollars than it contributed in taxes. Kansas got $5.6 billion more.

And who is paying the tab? New York. New Jersey. Connecticut. Massachusetts. Connecticut. Colorado. In fact, once you filter out Maryland and Virginia, homes of our nation’s hyper-expensive national security apparatus and much of the rest of the federal government, the next 14 states with the biggest disparities between what they pay in federal taxes and what they get back in federal spending, and 19 of the next 20, were all red states in the 2016 election.

Red states clearly think they can keep up this bullcrap—pretending to be budgetary stalwarts in the face of profligate Democratic spending, claiming that it’s Democratic states and cities (i.e. Black Americans), that are sucking the budget dry. Yet the reality is the exact opposite.

And yet Democrats, with their desire to help people, were far too tolerant of this misinformation. No more.

Republicans don’t want disaster relief for the states hit hardest by the virus? Then no more disaster relief for states hit with hurricanes and floods and droughts.

Republicans want to shrink the budget deficit, and don’t want to raise taxes on the rich? Fine. Kentucky, you go first. You too, Kansas and Florida and every other red state. Texas wants to bail out its energy sector, crushed by the virus and geopolitical maneuverings by Saudi Arabia and Russia? Tough shit. If every state has to fend for itself, then do it. But we can dispense with this idea that we’re one nation, indivisible. It means that the time for a serious look at splitting this country in pieces might make the most sense.

Or we can act like a united country, just like it says there, in our fucking name.