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# DEATON: Healey and Markey Should Look in the Mirror, Not at Trump, for Massachusetts’ Problems
- URL: https://www.newbostonpost.com/healey-markey-massachusetts-problems-deaton-op-ed/
- Published: 2026-04-14T16:00:04.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-14T16:00:04.000Z
- Description: John Deaton argues Massachusetts’ economic struggles stem from Beacon Hill policies, not the President, pointing to outmigration, high costs, and lagging growth.
- Author: John Deaton
- Tags: Commentary, Politics, State Government, #most-popular

Maura Healey and Ed Markey only have to look in the mirror to find the cause of Massachusetts’ woes. 

They are blaming everyone but themselves. Governor Maura Healey launched her reelection campaign with a simple message: the President and the Republican Party are making everything worse. Republican Party policies are raising costs. They are tearing families apart. They are the reason Massachusetts is struggling. 

Senator Ed Markey has spent the last year focused on national battles against the President rather than the challenges facing our state. The entire Massachusetts Democratic establishment has adopted one unified political theory: that every problem in this state traces back to the President and the Republican Party.

There is a simple test for that theory. If the President and the Republican Party are the cause of Massachusetts’ problems, then every state in America should be struggling equally. The President’s and the Republican Party’s policies apply everywhere. They touch every corner of the country. So if Healey and Markey are right, then Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and New Hampshire—states not run by them—should be suffering right alongside us.

They are not.

The data tell a different story.

Since 2020, Texas and Florida have grown their economies faster than Massachusetts, with GDP growth of 3.9 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, outpacing our numbers. In 2025, Texas alone added more than 120,000 jobs, more than any other state in the country. Florida’s consumer spending grew by 7 percent in 2024, the highest in the nation, fueled by an influx of residents and rising incomes. Tennessee drew $3 billion in net income from interstate migration in a single year. New Hampshire, our next-door neighbor with no income tax and no sales tax, consistently ranks among the fastest-growing states in New England for attracting new residents. Many of New Hampshire’s new residents moved from Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, Massachusetts ranked 49th out of 50 states for domestic population growth on the [U-Haul index](https://www.newbostonpost.com/massachusetts-bottom-five-uhaul-growth-index-2026/). In the 12 months ending July 2025, Massachusetts lost a net 33,340 residents to other states, a sharp jump from the prior year’s losses. The top destinations were Florida and New Hampshire. The Tax Foundation ranks Massachusetts 43rd in the country for tax competitiveness. SmartAsset ranked us the highest cost-of-living state in the nation for families in 2025\. These are not the President’s numbers.

These are Massachusetts numbers, produced by Massachusetts policies and delivered by one-party rule.

Governor Healey spent 45 days out of Massachusetts in 2025, much of that time traveling to collaborate with other Democratic governors on national strategies. *The Boston Globe* [found](https://archive.is/YmXbk?ref=newbostonpost.com) she held nearly 100 fewer official events in-state in 2025 than she did in her first year in office. One in five Massachusetts municipalities saw her in 2025\. While she was building a national profile, Massachusetts residents were packing up and leaving.

The housing math alone tells a story that blaming the President and the Republican Party cannot explain. The median single-family home in Massachusetts now costs almost $650,000, a 73 percent increase since 2000\. During that same period, median household income grew just 4 percent, according to state data.

Greater Boston is the second most expensive metro area in the country. Eversource customers are paying $59 per month in climate policy surcharges, up from $15 in 2014\. Every single one of these trends is the product of decisions made on Beacon Hill: restrictive zoning, permitting delays, a regulatory environment that makes it among the most expensive places in the country to build a home, green energy mandates pushed by Markey and Healey driving up utility bills, and a tax structure that the Tax Foundation says is one of the least competitive in the nation.

Texas did not build its economy by blaming the President. New Hampshire did not attract young families by holding press conferences denouncing the President. Tennessee did not draw $3 billion in new income from migrating Americans by organizing resistance rallies. They built environments where businesses want to locate, where young families can afford homes, and where the cost of showing up to work and raising children is not itself a financial crisis. They made governing choices, and they are reaping the results.

Massachusetts is also reaping the results of its governing choices. A Boston University analysis found the state lost [$4.3 billion](https://insights.bu.edu/massachusetts-outmigration-study/?ref=newbostonpost.com) in adjusted gross income in a single year to outmigration. Nine in 10 of those who left earned under $200,000\. A Suffolk University poll found one in three Massachusetts residents has considered leaving over cost-of-living concerns. These are not people fleeing the President. These are people fleeing Boston’s housing costs, Beacon Hill’s taxes, and a state government that seems more interested in national resistance politics than in the price of rent in Worcester and across Massachusetts.

Standing up to the President is not a housing policy. It is not a tax policy. It is not a plan to keep young families from loading U-Haul trucks bound for Manchester or Tampa. Massachusetts needs elected officials who come to work every day focused on the people of this state, not on building a national brand, not on the next resistance rally, and not on the Democratic Party's political fortunes. The next elected leader must put people before politics. This is not about a red or blue jersey; this is about Massachusetts families.

The governors and senators of Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and New Hampshire—states not run by them—are not magic. They simply chose to govern. It is time Massachusetts chooses to govern.