Sarah Palin's Alaskanomics (Time). Brutal!

[chill_wind]

Sarah Palin's Alaskonomics
Tuesday, Sep. 09, 2008 By MICHAEL KINSLEY


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 has 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.
.

Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said "No, thanks" to the famous "bridge to nowhere" (McCain's favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said "Yes, please" until the project became a symbol and political albatross.

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 2 1/2 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.

Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state's unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can't afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

(...)

read the rest: It's brutal!

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1839724-2,00.html

[yardwork]

1. Wow. What got into Kinsley!

[chill_wind]

2. I think he hates Alaska! ;-)

[tularetom]

3. Most socialist State in the USA

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But please spare us the "rugged individualist" bullshit when its applied to citizens who willingly share in their state's resource extraction profits.

The place is full of welfare moms and dads.

Wonder why Palin has such a big family? Couple thousand bucks per kid per year have anything to do with it?

[roguevalley]

14. Consider our cost of living, the fact that nearly everything is

shipped/freighted in and offset that against the permanent fund dividend each year and you will find yourself stuck in a big hole unless you are rich. the permanent fund is a nice thing at tax time but that's about it for most of us. As for the welfare stuff, you haven't a clue obviously. People work here and hard. We have resources and we share in them. Sorry your state hasn't done the same. They could perhaps if they wanted to but they didn't have the far-sighted leadership we had back in the day.

[tularetom]

15. Like I said a socialist state

AND Again like I said Not that there's anything wrong with that.

You have resources and you share in them. That's commendable but it is still socialism.

I'm not making a value judgement here. I do not put pure capitalism above socialism. I'm merely making an observation.

And you won't get any argument from me about short sighted leadership here in CA.

[roguevalley]

38. sweetie, I AM a socialist. I don't see it as a epithet. :)

[Usrename]

34. That's a pantload.

Alaska is a welfare state. You are number one (per capita) for living off the federal government dole.

Posted by Miss Authoritiva http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/22685.html

[roguevalley]

37. check out the conditions for living here. before you throw around

insults, you better know what you are talking about. Go ahead and live in ignorance. Its easier than finding out half your state still lives in the ice age.

[Usrename]

43. What is wrong with you? What insults am I throwing around?

The numbers are very clear and simple.

Your state is subsidized by the taxpayers from other states.

I know you might have a different perception, you might think that you guys are tough and independent and rugged individualists and so forth. But you would be wrong about all of that.


Alaska in on the dole. Sucking the federal government teat. It ain't my fault, that's just the way it is.

You pay in $4.8 billion and get to spend $9.2 billion. Taxpayers in other states subsidize you guys.

Check the links I posted. Your state is the worst charity case per capita.


Now, what insults am I throwing around? Are the facts insulting to you?

[bertman]

36. "you will find yourself stuck in a big hole unless you are rich." How true for all the rest of us

too, roguevalley. People work hard here in North Carolina where I am. What the hell makes you think Alaskans work any harder than us? I thought you guys were out hunting, fishing, riding snowmobiles, playing hockey and screwing around with Gov Fertilla the Huntress. When could you possibly have time to work harder than us?

And we don't have our state gummint giving us $3200 a year to help out cause we have 13 (THIRTEEN) times the number of folks living here, so we have to split the resources a mite different from y'all pioneers up in the North Country. But that's ok. We'll make do.

[roguevalley]

39. Too bad North Carolina doesn't share their resources with the

owners, the people.

No one says we work harder but I'm sick of posts saying we don't work at all. We are socialist welfare queens don't you know. :)

I wish all the states could do more for their people than they do. Our state had GIANTS running it in the eighties and they took care of us. Anyone who wants to can move here. Be prepared for another way of life if you go outside of Anchorage or the cities. We get all the rejects and never wases from other states, the dreamers and runners and dipshits. They are here too.

I am going to assume that your remarks are satire and not insult. Personally, I wish you all could have it better. But don't assume that anyone up here actually makes money on this. Without it, paying my house taxes would be more hell than it is and that is so for everyone, working and/or retired that I know.

[bertman]

42. Yes, definitely satire liberally mixed with sarcasm. Hopefully along with a dash of truth.

No insult in this recipe.

North Carolina does share its resources with its owners, but only with SOME of its people. The plebians get what's left or what they can scrounge or beg from an otherwise industry- and good ole boy-dominated state gummint. Ah yes, don't let me forget agriculture-dominated too. The folks who bring you slave labor cleverly disguised as migrant workers.

I guess I figured it was like that EVERYWHERE in the U.S. From what you're telling me Alaska is set up differently.

I think the term "socialist welfare state" that's been thrown at you North Country folks is another attempt at satire since the Repukes use that disparaging moniker whenever gummint does ANYTHING for ANYBODY--except of course the corporations. It's the old "privatize the profits and subsidize the losses" theory of free market economics.

[MadrasT]

4. I just found that, too, and savored every word. K&R

:kick:

[Hamlette]

5. This part doesn't make sense to me

"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 2 1/2 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.'


Probably doesn't matter, but I've heard that before and I don't get it. If they are giving residents back nearly $3500 EACH this year, how can the tax burden be the highest?

There there is this:
"As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950)."

If they are sucking the oil companies dry, why are they getting so damned much money from the federal government?

I'm not one bit happy about paying each Alaskan $3500 per year out of my taxes. Which is what this is, isn't it?

[ramapo]

7. What about the "small" town money?

Doesn't it bother anybody that her all-American town of Wasilla received a government handout of $27,000,000?

I live in a town in North Jersey which is close to twice the population of Wasilla and believe me, the federal government isn't sending us welfare checks of $27,000,000. Hell, we're lucky to get $270K from the state.

[Johnny Noshoes]

19. That $3500...

That $3500 is NOT from our taxes here in the lower 48. The money is from the Permanent Fund derived from oil production in Alaska.

[bvar22]

29. That cost is passed on to the rest of us.

"That $3500 is NOT from our taxes here in the lower 48. The money is from the Permanent Fund derived from oil production in Alaska."

The money in the Alaska's "Permanent Fund" comes from TAXES on the Oil Companies. The Oil Companies pass that cost on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices at the pump.....so...

...the rest of us DO INDEED pay the $3500 received by Alaskan residents.

[bvar22]

31. That cost is passed on to the rest of us.

"That $3500 is NOT from our taxes here in the lower 48. The money is from the Permanent Fund derived from oil production in Alaska."

The money in the Alaska's "Permanent Fund" comes from TAXES on the Oil Companies. The Oil Companies pass that cost on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices at the pump.....so...

...the rest of us DO INDEED pay the $3500 received by Alaskan residents.

[chill_wind]

6. He is hitting her where she lives.

Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? People in Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. They're more American. Although there are small towns and farms and high school hockey teams in the lower 48, there are fewer down here, per capita, than in Alaska. And there are many more journalists and pollsters and city dwellers and other undesirables who might benefit if every American had the same right to leech off the government as do the good citizens of Sarah Palin's Alaska.

[unblock]

8. she's the #1 tax & spender!

[me b zola]

26. That needs to be an ad

:thumbsup:

[chill_wind]

27. "Sarahnomics."

[chill_wind]

9. An Alaskan speaks up: "We profit from the misery of others (...) "

Here's an interesting reader blog post at TPM (Cafe Talk):

State of Alaska Budget Surplus due to Spike in Oil Prices NOT Palin's Veto Pen

By witty1 - September 8, 2008, 7:50PM

The crap about Palin's veto pen being responsible for the State of Alaska's budget surplus is really annoying me. The absolute truth is that Alaska's budget surplus is solely due to the rise in oil prices.

From what I can tell the State of Alaska budget deficit in 2004 was roughly $4 billion. At that time oil prices were roughly $30 a barrel.

http://www.ioga.com/Special/crudeoil_Hist.htm

From what I've been able to see from State budget reports is that the deficit was completely replaced with a surplus by 2006 - coinciding with the rise in oil prices.

It looks like oil prices rose $27.43 a barrel from January 2004 ($30.87) to January 2006 ($58.30), which I believe coincides with the State budget surplus.

As an Alaskan I hate to point out that for lack of a better way of saying it, we profit from the misery others, (and the U.S. economy as a whole) with the meteoric rise in oil prices.

(...)

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/state-of-alaska-budget-surplus.php

[ClarkUSA]

10. Time and Newsweek have been on the trail of Palin's lies and wingnut views.

Good for them (and for us).

[chill_wind]

11. That's what you get when you withhold access while trashing the press at the same time.

(Unless you're ALREADY IN the oval office, like Bush and Snarl). ie Who the hell is this woman that nobody had ever hear of until the convention? Well, now they're asking. The corp media loves and demands access above all. If they don't get it, there can be a price.
They have papers to sell, revenues and bottom lines to watch.

A vacuum WILL BE FILLED. This has been a really STUPID strategy on the part of the McCain campaign. She's being more sharply defined with each new day. She's going to have a hard time getting all that junk back in the trunk...NOW! And it's not been without more than a little help from the internet tubes.

"Ignore Sarah Palin?" NO, HELLL NO!

:-)

[ClarkUSA]

12. Yup, that's what's happening.

The Fourth Estate is rising to the challenge issued to them by the GOP "Lies To Nowhere" ticket. They are pissed.

[chill_wind]

13. ... for the night crowd

[cyberpj]

16. K&R - nt (going off now to read the rest...)

[Tatiana]

17. $hit! Fantastic! Guess ol' Joe Klein really did light a fire under their a$$es! n/t

[VoodooGuru]

18. Hell yes. K&R. nt

[ejbr]

20. Your link goes to the second page, not the first of this article. THANKS! n/t

[chill_wind]

22. Thanks

Can't edit it now-- here's page 1

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1839724-1,00.html

[ejbr]

35. No worries, I figured it out, just as I am sure everyone else can! n/t

[Douglas Carpenter]

21. K& R !!This is the kind of post that needs to be sent to everyone!!! We need a lot more like this!!

[kurth_]

23. Repeat : "Alaska is an adjunct member of OPEC"

run by a crazy religious despot too.

[vanderBeth]

24. Holy crap, is this really Time?

It's brutal.

[chill_wind]

25. Link correction-- page 1

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1839724-1,00.html

[trudyco]

28. Is this online version only? Who is Mr. Kinsley? I don't get Time nt

[kurth_]

30. It;'s also on Yahoo News which you can access:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080909/us_time/sarahpalinsalaskonomics

[chill_wind]

32. Thanks kurth.

[wvbygod]

33. When did Time Mag get onboard?

Do you think they will stay with us until after November? I know they will hit Obama hard
after he is elected but this is great for now.

[BlueIdaho]

40. ENOUGH!

The truth is a beautiful thing.

[ann_american2004]

41. TIME? Wow.