Palin and "Socialist" Alaska: Another Case of Deceitful Hypocrisy from the Lipstick Pitbull

Now the Republigandists in McCain’s campaign are calling Barack Obama a socialist because he proposes middle class tax cuts while allowing the top money-makers $250,000 or more to pay taxes at a level commensurate with what they were before the Bush “give it to the rich” tax cuts. This is extremely hypocritical.

Sarah Palin is governor of the most "socialist" state in the union, and she knows it, but she criticizes Senator Obama about need middle class tax relief. Give me a break! I once lived in Alaska, home of Barracuda Palin, and it has a wonderful plan of sharing the wealth called the permanent fund. I wonder if Sarah or Todd Plain have ever given back their peramanent fund checks that come each fall?

Not that anything about the current “socialism” rhetoric should be taken seriously, it is just another one of the McCainanites distractive lies. But the closest thing to socialism on the American policy agenda is in Sarah Palin’s Alaska? You have collective ownership of valuable natural resources that generates lots of revenue for the state, and then the government makes “spreading the wealth around” through the Permanent Fund, etc. its main priority. It’s actually, for all the flaws of Alaska politics and public policy, a pretty good system. But I think the best way to think about it is that it’s an example of a somewhat special case in which socialism is a good idea.

Of course another time where you need a dose of socialism is if, for example, there’s a financial system emergency and the government needs to partially nationalize large banks in order to recapitalize them. But that’s been brought to us by George W. Bush with the support of John McCain.

Back in the day, as Sarah Palin likes to say, shortly after the oil from Alaska’s North Slope began flowing to market through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the [Alaska] Permanent Fund was created by an amendment to the constitution of the U.S. state of Alaska to be an investment for at least 25% of proceeds from some minerals [such as oil and gas] sale or royalties...The Alaska Permanent Fund sets aside a certain share of oil revenues to continue benefiting current and all future generations of Alaskans.

So while Gov. Palin continues to criticize Sen. Obama for saying that "spreading the wealth around" helps everyone, the annual oil check paid to every Alaskan appears to do just that. I do not see anything wrong with the Permanent Fund. Indeed, I loved to get the checks while I was an Alaskan citizen. But I see Palin's cricism of Obama as high level hypocrisy. And McCain, after voting for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, now he wants to criticize Obama's tax cuts for 95 percent of the people as "spreading the wealth" and "socialism"?

The PFD payout, which comes in or near October of each year, is acknowledged to have a substantial effect on Alaska's economy, both in total and especially in rural Alaska where unemployment can reach 60% and where cash is scarce.

While I am not against the Alaskan model of natural resource management, I do believe that as she runs around the country disparaging Sen. Obama's economic plan as socialism, Gov. Palin should be challenged to articulate why Alaskan socialism is not a problem for her. Why is spreading the wealth around good for Alaska but not good for the rest of America?

This year's disbursement to every eligible Alasakan is $3,269 each for every man, woman and child. At times like this I wish I still lived in Alaska.