“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” premieres Sunday night, but Palin (pictured with son Trig) celebrates an Alaska that bears little resemblance to the real one. Never mind that she whines about her privacy being invaded while doing a reality show. As Michael Daly in the New York Daily News notes:
Alaska gets $1.84 in federal spending for every dollar it pays in federal taxes.
We in New York get just 79 cents on the dollar.
Which means we subsidize Alaska even as it enjoys a $2 billion-plus budget surplus.
…on top of a budget surplus, Alaska has a special fund drawn from oil profits that doles out dough to every resident annually.
The check this year is $1,281 for each and every person who has resided in Alaska for a year. Those who die or are born in the midst of a year still get the full check.
Palin intones, “I love Alaska. I understand the uniqueness of this land. It’s about family and community.” Yes, and about government subsidies. She adds, “I’d rather be out here being free.” No, she’d rather be out of Alaska, having quit her job as governor to spend more time making money on the mainland.
Most people move to Alaska because they don’t like the lower 48. Palin is the perfect opportunist to exploit her shallow, contradictory positions to the willfully ignorant.
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