Governor Palin... loves Moose but prefers Pork
* Sarah Palin was Governor of Alaska (population 680k) for about 1.5 years before becoming the VP Candidate. Palin has called Alaska a "microcosm" of America. Alaska's entire population (#47) is on par with the cities of Austin, Memphis and Columbus (ohio). By comparison, the New York City school system has 1.1 million children in it and feeds/transports about the entire population of Alaska every day. Yes, that's right, there are school systems with bigger budgets than the State of Alaska. The 2nd largest city in Alaska has a population of 30,000 people. There are 125 football stadiums in America bigger than that (wikipedia ftw).
* One of the first things Palin did as Governor was to install an expensive tanning bed (LA Times-37). And for the record, this cannot be used for treating depression from low northern light exposure, as her defenders have claimed. That's a different band of EV radiation (look it up).
* Her big "success" so far in Alaska was to increase taxes & regulation on oil, driving up prices for the rest of America. A true maverick. 14% of America's domestic oil comes from Alaska (EIA-16). On top of other hefty fees and taxes, Palin increased the windfall tax rate to 25% on all Oil coming out of Alaska (Anchorage Daily News-4) and has brought in $11 billion in revenue this year alone (Bloomberg-17, LA Times-15). Industry experts have stated that for every barrel of American oil coming out of Alaska, she's taking about $.75 cents of ever $1 as taxes and fees (Seattle Times-39). I wonder if the Republicans consider this a "model" in fiscal conservative government?
* Palin has repeatedly claimed that Alaska makes up 20% of America's domestic energy supply. She was off by 600%. It's only about 3.5% of America's domestic energy supply (Factcheck.org-38). That's how little she understands her own state's economy and the general energy politics in America. Off by 600% while talking on national television about her expertise.
* Alaska has a $5 billion budget surplus because of her aggressive energy taxation (Bloomberg-17, LA Times-15) and is giving residents checks for $3200 this fall. That's approximately $13000 for a family of four (LA Times-15). Alaska has no state income, property or sales tax so these residents are literally being paid royalties to live there - because of high gas prices. Chew on that a bit.
* Under Palin, 1/3rd of Alaska's jobs depend on Federal funds (The Economist-18). Makes you rethink the "rugged individualism" image, huh?
* Palin has requested over $750 million in federal pork in her mere 1.5 years in office (AP-8, Washington Post-13). Remember that $5 billion surplus from taxing energy? Well, she's still requesting hundreds of millions from the rest of us... even after we pay more at the pump.
* Under Palin, Alaska has the highest pork-per-person ratio in the nation (Washington Post-13, AP-9). Alaska is 71% above the national average in pork requests (The Economist-18). This doesn't count the $329 million she had hoped for to build the Bridge to Nowhere (CNN-19). She did cut down her pork requests to a mere $200 million so far in 2008, but mainly at the request of the President and because Congress cut her off. Even after her cuts in pork, Alaska remains at the top of the list of pork states.
See her wearing a pro-"Bridge to Nowhere" shirt here:
* Palin lied when she claimed that she said "thanks but no thanks, and i told Congress to keep the money" pertaining the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. In truth, Palin supported the project while running for governor and mocked those who didn't understand Alaska's infrastructure needs (Anchorage Daily News-3). In fact, she supported using STATE funds for it in addition to the federal pork (Anchorage Daily News-2). Only 11 months into her first term, as Congress refused to fully fund it, did she declare the program dead. She simply refused to make good on her promise to use state funds. Her official press release blamed Congress (Press Release-5).
The "Road to Nowhere" lives on...
* Palin never returned the funds. She went ahead and spent the left-over $36 million in federal funds for the "bridge to nowhere" on the "road to nowhere" (NY Post-6, Press Release-5). By the way, her administration is actually still pursuing the Bridge to Nowhere project according to folks in her administration (Propublica-22).
* Palin claims to have cut spending, but Alaska's operating budget actually increased (Bloomberg-17). Her cuts were primarily on local Capital expenses - cutting $231 million in local infrastructure projects including "hydropower projects to ball fields, roads and bridges to police cars" (Anchorage Daily News-4). She also line-item vetoed funds for family counseling and adoption programs, a shelter for homeless, repairing sidewalks for elementary schools, replacing fire stations, etc. (Bloomberg-17). Having a $5 billion budget surplus and $750 million federal pork sure drives one to make hard decisions! She did manage to add public funding for her Pentecostal church's evangelical outreach & training program where folks may learn to speak in tongues, experience the Holy Spirit, learn to divine prophecy from God, and learn to go out into public life in God's name - the same church where she told practitioners that her proposal for a new pipeline was "God's will" (Blogspot-20, Youtube-21).
* She spent $400,000 taxpayer dollars on a campaign to push aerial wolf killing even though the state had already voted the other way, twice (Anchorage Daily News-36).
* Palin requested & funneled state funds to support her old Pentecostal church's recruitment and training center (DailyKos review of sources-40). The video they had on their website stated that they teach how to engage in prophesy. They have since removed the video, but it can be found with a little digging about "third wave" and such.
* Palin opposed a shelter that serves troubled teen mothers (Washington Post-41). Sports centers to keep kids out of pregnancy trouble. Yes. Shelters for kids in trouble? No. How very christian of her.
* They lied when they claimed that she "put the governor's jet on ebay and sold it for a profit," and she "fired the governor's chef." Real maverick stuff. The truth is that she failed to sell the jet on ebay and had to sell it through a contractor for a loss (CBS-11). And in fairness, the state is nearly the length of the entire USA so the state having a small $2.5m plane isn't exactly extravagant. Similarly, she didn't actually fire the chef. She merely gave her another job in the state government (AP-9). |
