Agreed, I think this shows where government spending is a primary economic force more than anything else. New Mexico for instance is full of federally-funded la

Agreed, I think this shows where government spending is a primary economic force more than anything else. New Mexico for instance is full of federally-funded labs and nuclear facilities, and has a low population - so per capita government spending looks huge. The tradeoff here is that other, more populous states don't have WIPP in their backyard. Not to mention all the useful environmental factors NM offers (like White Sands). With so many other factors affecting where overall government spending goes, it would be a mistake to link this to politics at all.