Is there basic polygon data of standard geographies (states, counties, zip codes, etc.) available which has minimal boundary detail? Will be used at small scale for visualization purposes only, so don't need all the boundary detail which leads to slower redraw and longer rendering.
If you only have a basic license Generalize—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop in the editor toolbox will work
If you have standard or advanced, then Simplify Polygon—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop
might do it
Natural Earth has data at three different scales available for download:
Esri also has a generalized US States feature layer as well as other map image services if you are planning to use these in a web map.
http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=99fd67933e754a1181cc755146be21ca