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How about in exchange, the Unions insist that every Southern State gets Washington dollars with parity to what the Midwest gets back. Program by Program. While we are at it, insist that their academic standards are on parity with Northern states, especially when it comes to No Child Left Behind. Let's see how their schools operate once their funding gets cut when they need to stop cooking their academic books.
While we are at it, let's make sure the South gets Disaster Funding at the same rate as the Midwest, and let's make sure no Southern State can insist that Insurance Companies stay in their states at losses while bailing out their hurricanes underwritten by and large, by the Midwest and the Northeast. And let's make sure, once the supply chain collapses, we really remember this when their states fall back into the Depression.