Palin's Project List Totals $453 Million

[question everything]

Source: WSJ


McCain Campaign Says Record Shows Drop in Requests
By LAURA MECKLER and JOHN R. WILKE
September 15, 2008

Last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, hadn't sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress, presenting her as a fiscal conservative. But state records show Gov. Palin has asked U.S. taxpayers to fund $453 million in specific Alaska projects over the past two years. These projects include more than $130 million in federal funds that would benefit Alaska's fishing industry and an additional $9 million to help Alaska oil companies. She also has sought $4.5 million to upgrade an airport on a Bering Sea island that has a year-round population of less than 100.

(snip)

In fact, in the current fiscal year, she is seeking $197 million for 31 projects, the records show. In the prior year, her first year in office, she sought $256 million for dozens more projects ranging from research on rockfish and harbor-seal genetics to rural sanitation and obesity prevention. By comparison, her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, sought more than $350 million in his last year in office. The McCain campaign said Sunday that Gov. Palin's overall record is one of fiscal discipline. "Her record is cutting the number of earmark requests from the previous administration sizably," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, and she has vetoed wasteful state spending as well.

(snip)

The state's earmark requests stand out in part because its state government is among the wealthiest in the U.S. Flush with oil and gas royalties, it doesn't impose income or sales taxes. In fact, money flows the other way: Every man, woman and child this year got a check for $3,200. The McCain campaign has also come under fire for saying on the stump and in TV ads that Gov. Palin killed the controversial "Bridge to Nowhere," a $223 million earmark linking the mainland to a sparsely populated island. In fact, she supported the project initially and killed it after it was widely criticized and Congress allowed the state to use the funds for other projects. On the campaign trail, Gov. Palin has repeatedly attacked Sen. Obama on earmarks. "Our opponent has requested nearly one billion dollars in earmarks in three years. That's about a million for every working day," she said at a rally in Albuquerque, N.M., earlier this month.

Sen. Barack Obama requested a total of $860 million in earmarks in his Senate years, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. That doesn't include $78 million for projects that were national in scope and had been requested by many lawmakers. Sen. Obama halted all earmark requests in fiscal 2009. It is difficult to compare Sen. Obama's earmark record with Gov. Palin's. But using the same calculation that the McCain campaign uses, the total amount of earmarked dollars divided by the number of working days while each held office (assuming a five-day work week, every week, for both), Gov. Palin sought $980,000 per workday, compared to roughly $893,000 for Sen. Obama.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122143893857134389.html (subscription)

[MidwestTransplant]

1. She also dramatically boosted spending.

[cosmicone]

2. Like I said before ...

Sarah Palin will self-destruct. We should ignore her and call her irrelevant.

McLame is the main target and we need to tear him down, exposing his lies and his lack of integrity.

[Roy]

6. she lies too much to be ignored, both liars should be exposed! n/t

[dkf]

3. Population Alaska: 670,053 Population Illinois:12,831,970

Illinois has 19x as many people as Alaska, therefore, he would have had to request $17 million a day to keep up with Palin.

[neverforget]

4. The higher they go, the farther they fall. Her landing is going to be

explosive.

[BearSquirrel2]

9. You know ...

You know Maude is dead right??? Palin better stay away from NASCAR races!!!!

[neverforget]

13. Bwaaaaa hhhhaaaaa hhahaaaaa!

:rofl:

[dbonds]

5. And the WSJ is a right leaning newspaper.

[progressivebydesign]

7. 9 Million for the OIL INDUSTRY?? OMG. what an outrage! N/t

[bulloney]

8. Do the Republicans understand how quickly and easily things can be verified and published?

Apparently not. They just say literally anything, thinking that people won't know the truth until after the election. Instead, the lies keep piling up to where people can't believe a word they say.

Even conservative publications are showing that McCain and Palin have constantly lied on their positions and records.

What's up with that? Are they having an epiphany after seeing all of the markets collapsing around them?

[BearSquirrel2]

10. You would think so ...

You would think so. But apparently when right wing tools like Bob Schieffer have roundtables on Sarah Palin, he doesn't bother to do any research. He just listens to his wormtongue staff whispering in his ear.

[question everything]

12. They don't care. They never bothered with facts and rationale

they always wanted a "fun" person to be in the White House. As long as McCain tried to stick to facts, he bore them to death and they did not trust him. But now they have the barbie doll who speaks like "one of us" who feels comfortable facing a crowd, who does not feel a need to explain or to apologize to anyone and they roar: stick it to them, baby."

[Solly Mack]

11. I'm calling her Paliar around the house

think Palin, liar, and plier...someone who plies a trade....she's a plier of lies... telling lies is her trade