I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but I have heard it said more than once that Republican led states are able to greenlight projects faster, are more business-friendly environments, and generally have less red tape compared to Democrat led states. Love it or hate it, but greenlighting projects is a big component in allocating funds.

On the other hand, if they were so much better, shouldn't those "red states" be the ones with the much better economies?

I'm looking at China and what environmental price in the form of polluted land they pay and will be paying for a very long time. The big problems in Western countries also all originated in times with less or no regulation of such things. Just because that's not in the headlines all the time does not mean the problem is any less while the public is not paying attention.

When "it works" and overall success is the only criteria, the Vikings and Mongols surely count as extremely successful. Regulation is meant to take the price into account, in the cases of those two peoples millions of dead and a lot of pillaging and conquering. Regulation is definitely a burden, if you don't have to care about anything but the bottom line it's much easier.

Definitely not true. Right now Red states are openly attacking businesses that don't agree with the prevailing ideology. In Florida, the governor tried to destroy the state's biggest employer. In Texas they have been trying to prosecute out of state businesses. Alabama has more taxes on businesses than California.

Red states just say they're better for business.

I thought it is because they have worst economies and it is always an attempt to prop them up.

The other reason is that while republican party is purposefully trying to destroy economies of blue states, democrats were not trying to purposefully destroy economy of red states.

This might be true, it’s definitely repeated, but it’s generally not the real reason.

The real answer is just politics. Blue states have (generally) healthy economies, with a variety of economic actors and many businesses. Businesses often will shop around various states to build a factory looking for tax cuts. The politician can be associated with new jobs, and the business gets a discount, so it appears to be a win-win (if you ignore the lack of tax revenue). No one needs a tax break to start a business in NYC, LA, nor Silicon Valley, so you don’t hear about all the businesses that open there.

Nationally, policies like the IRA are big boosters for the economy, and democrats are focused on getting it done because it’s good for society and the national priorities. They won’t focus on where the money goes, and will allow the money to go to run down republican states as economic stimulus. But you’ll notice it’s usually capital intense factories that end up in these situations, not white collar jobs.

That’s not the reason national projects get there.

Federal funds get funneled to red states to secure the votes of their representatives.