Unseated

If you tax them, they will leave

According to a post-census study by Americans for Tax Reform, states slated to gain seats in the next reapportionment are distinguished from their slower-growing counterparts in three ways: They have lower taxes, less government spending, and, in most cases, right-to-work laws that weaken unions.

Texas will gain four seats and Florida will gain two. New York and Ohio will lose two each. Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington will each pick up a seat. Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will lose a seat each.

California, similar to Texas in many ways but not in tax and regulatory policy, will retain its 53-seat House delegation, but for the first time in its 160-year history the state will not pick up any new seats. California is also seeing some telling intrastate population movement, with relatively low-tax Riverside County picking up population at the expense of high-tax, union-dominated San Francisco. 

These changes are too complex to pin on a single explanation, but the overall numbers suggest a strong and encouraging correlation. People vote with their feet, not just across national borders but within nations as well. Increasingly, they seem to be voting against bigger government and in favor of lower taxes.