I didn’t actually finish reading the story, because it devolved into a bunch of useless GOP talking points.

Essentially, what you need to know about northeast Arizona is that you have exactly two resources: coal and uranium. Neither is particularly relevant currently, Of course the Arizona GOP is going to claim the designation harms commerce (we did, in fact, elect a used-car salesman as governor in 1986 under the Reaganesque guise of “running government like a business”).

You see, the issue here is that government is designed to solve problems without expecting profit. This was part of the '80s conservative movement (after abortion and anyone being anything other than heteronormative) … trickle down, it’ll all work out, the government is your enemy, usw.

One of the things you want to do with prediction is assure the outcome. So, they’ve been dismantling government to prove it doesn’t work. This is what we like to call “begging the question.”