Sarah Palin's Real Alaska: No. 1 In Taxes Per Resident And No. 1 In Spending Per Resident

Time :

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn't a journalist and never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey. Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine about America, as she herself maintains. But spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative...

... Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.

Read the whole story: Time

Comments

[Huffingtonposter231]

04:43 AM on 09/10/2008

Laugh. I'm afraid this article is practicing some really bad spin. Alaska, according to CNN, gets less of it's per capita income than all other states. http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/taxesbystate2005/

Alaska has the LOWEST taxes. In 2005 according to the US Census Bureau it ranked 47th so things were very good and they got better under Palin.

in 2006 the tax foundation put Alaska in the top ten of good (low) tax environments so Alaska has a proven history of low taxes.

Smearing Palin with deceptive spin is not the way to win. It's not the supposed "higher way" Obama falsely claimed he represented. And clearly, Obama supporters are not following any higher way of "change" when they are deceptive about Palin.

I guess the idea is just to sling mud, keep slinging, put out as much twisted, spun, dishonest information as can humanly be done and hope she is smeared to death and can't get out from under it before the elections?

I think that's why people love her....they see all this bilge and realize she must be ok for the radical left to so hate her and to so slime her.

[Huffingtonposter231]

04:49 AM on 09/10/2008

A link to a PDF detailing in 2008 how Alaska is the LOWEST loca statel tax burden in the 50 states.

I'm not buying this line that Alaska is the worst state. I think it's just more deceptive anti Palin spin that goes against the truth....that people have it really good in Alaska.

[Huffingtonposter231]

04:50 AM on 09/10/2008

http://www.retirementliving.com/tax_burden_2008.pdf

Whoops heres the link

[Whinger]

03:33 AM on 09/10/2008

If this woman and her sidekick get into power Americans will learn a lesson they will never forget.

G W Bush has brought extreme hardship to the nation and the world with eight years of pro rich policies, unleashing two Bush Trojans will bring the nation to its knees with outdated policies!

[ThePublicRecord]

01:43 AM on 09/10/2008

http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/312-palins-office-launched-probe-into-ex-brother-in-laws-disability-claims.html

Palin's Office Launched Probe Into Ex Brother-in Law's Disability Claims

Published in : Nation/World

Palin's office wants $88,000 to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act Request for previously undisclosed emails.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin " collaborating with her husband Todd and several senior aides " conducted what amounted to a rogue investigation into suspicions that her ex-brother-in-law was faking a job-related injury as a state trooper, according to state documents, law enforcement officials and former aides to Palin.

The investigation was conducted using the resources of Gov. Palin"s office and had the goal of destroying Mike Wooten"s career with the Alaska state troopers, the documents and the interviews reveal.

[darthdarcy]

12:47 AM on 09/10/2008

Alaska is number one in rapes and Incest to apparently....and rape victims in Wasilla had to pay for the rape kit until some real Christians in the Legislature over turned Palin and her sick Police officials..!

[danoj]

12:23 AM on 09/10/2008

And yet she has the highest approval rating of any governor in the US. Must not be all bad in Alaska.

[RobinSeattle]

08:06 AM on 09/10/2008

Geez, what is Alaska? Kentucky on the rocks?

[freedog]

09:18 PM on 09/09/2008

I used to live in Alaska...say what you will about taxes, she sent every alaskan, man woman and child oil and energy tax rebates in the tune of $3500. If you were a family of 5 you would have received 17k+....The state treasury become so flush with oil money she sent it back to all the residents. Now, that's someone looking out for the common folks. This is all money separate from state and federal tax refunds.

[RobinSeattle]

09:50 PM on 09/09/2008

She could have distributed those funds to other states who didn't get everything they contributed to the federal government back because Alaska was sucking so much of it up thanks to porky fixer Ted Stevens.

Also, isn't distributing that money effectively putting all Alaska citizens on welfare? What incentive is there to work if you know you are getting a nice size check from the state?

You know, Pete Wilson did the same thing when he was governor of California because of a budget surplus. By the end of his reign, the state was awash in red ink and has not recovered. So he jacked up tuition on college students such as myself, making it harder to stay in school, and excise taxes.

Keep in mind that California is the eighth largest economy in the world and non-step debt happened there with mostly Republican governors during that time. The Republicans took GOP-centric Orange County, the richest county in America at the time, into bankruptcy with the help of Merrill Lynch.

So these things can be a two edged sword.

[freedog]

10:42 PM on 09/09/2008

Good point, except that if you check your own states porky laws you'll probably find that you sucked even more from my personal paycheck. That's why we are going to do away with all of this wasteful pork barrell, earmark spending, once and for all!

[CamJam]

10:14 PM on 09/09/2008

Lucky you

[RobinSeattle]

07:05 PM on 09/09/2008

A tax and spend Republican doing that voodoo (economics) that only the GOP can do so well.

In other words, folks. your taxes in whatever state you live in are higher to compensate for Palin sucking up so much of the money you send to Washington every year.

Enjoy!

[Obamlatina]

06:51 PM on 09/09/2008

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/4346/palin-on-earmarks-we-did-well

Palin on earmarks for Wasilla: "We did well"

[LAB11]

06:04 PM on 09/09/2008

You can fool all of the people for two months. Probably not for 2 weeks. America is on to the Palin factor.

[freedog]

05:15 PM on 09/09/2008

Theres two ways to have the tallest building in town; tear everyone elses down, or build your own. If your candidate can't persuade America to vote for him without tearing down Sarah Palin, than it's obvious to us that he's not much of a candidate at all.

[SunshineDaydream]

05:30 PM on 09/09/2008

“It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.”
Thomas Jefferson

[freedog]

09:23 PM on 09/09/2008

It's not the critic wo counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood: who strives valiantly; whyo errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall hnever be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. -TR

Let's stop for a second and give a round of applause to Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin.
The men and women in the arena.

[Henk]

08:18 PM on 09/09/2008

Dang I thought you were talking about Republicans. All they have been doing for the last thirty years is tear things down. The New Deal has been their enemy and they've done well at destroying it. Social Security, Medicare, Health Care, Pensions, Unions, Regulations, anything that might benifit the working class has to be destroyed. That is all Republicans can do: tear things down. They contribute nothing to the greater good.

We don't need to tear Sarah Palin down, she will do that all by herself. Starting with the Bridge to Nowhere lie.

[LeawoodKansas]

04:31 PM on 09/09/2008

Maybe we should nationalize the oil industry from a tax perspective and have the taxes collected spread across the US rather than just where the well/lease is located?

[Horst]

04:28 PM on 09/09/2008

Alaska has a population somewhat larger than Staten Island....more bears and msoquitos though.

[Freakpower]

04:25 PM on 09/09/2008

IT sure is nice of Mrs. to let that old washed up dude campaign with her!

Who's on the top of this ticket?

[rh654]

04:19 PM on 09/09/2008

I really am not happy Obama cut off the legs of the Liberal 527's - he needs those 527's to be going after McCain and Palin on their records and getting as nasty as the right wing is getting.

But Obama believes that the American people will see through the B.S. - not a belief I share - so unless Obama himself is going to take off the gloves - this might well be close to being over.

[oneofsixbillion]

04:13 PM on 09/09/2008

Vote on issues this time, not on "whether or not you would like to sit down with the candidate and have a beer". Look at the mess that type of voting got us into with President Bush. Don't glorify these people as false prophets or idols, whether they be Democrats or Rebublicans. Vote for your own well being. These people are servants of the public. Vote on which candidate will have the policies to:
1) grow the economy
2) create jobs/increase the middle class again
3) get us off of foreign oil
4) reduce GHG emissions
5) provide health care to the 45 million people without it
6) support our troops, get them home safely, and leave Iraq responsibly managed
7) bring this country together again
8) bring respect back to this country
9) reduce our debt
10) shore up our economy
11) get rid of corruption and cronyism
12) put more money in your pocket to feed your family
13) protect our homeland

Whom ever you think the candidate is that can best accomplish these issues then cast your vote for them. Now is not the time to be cynical, gimmicky, nasty, divisive, and only thinking about who we want to have a beer with.