Dense

The fairy tale continues:

“The important thing is she’s vetoed a half a billion dollars in earmark projects — far, far in excess of her predecessor and she’s given money back to the taxpayers and she’s cut their taxes, so I’m happy with her record,” McCain said.

Um, the answer to all of these would be “no.”

(1) Palin vetoed $231 million in 2007; many of the items were renewed for the 2008 budget, which Palin chopped by $268 million. Sure, that might look like $500 million, but when you consider that funding was restored for many of those projects, while others were vetoed two years in a row, you come up with a significantly smaller figure. And when you consider the fact that Palin signed the two largest state budgets in Alaskan history — the latter of which was plumped by a windfall revenue tax on the oil companies — the math looks even sillier. Speaking of which….

(2) Palin has not “given back money to the taxpayers” because the state does not collect significant amounts of revenue from taxpayers. We have no state income tax; what little the state does receive from ordinary schlubs comes from regressive taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling. In fact, however, he vast proportion of state revenue comes from the oil companies and the federal government. When the legislature passed an energy rebate this summer, giving eligible state residents a one-time $1200 payment, they were able to do so only because of rising oil prices and because of the new, higher taxes the state had levied on resource extraction. It’s simply not true that the state “returned” money to the people.

(3) While it’s true that the state suspended its 8-cent gas tax for a year, it’s also true that Alaskans pay the highest gas prices in the country right now. And while gas prices have dropped in recent weeks, the reduction has pretty much tracked with the national declines — which is to say, the suspension of the gas tax has been, as everyone who knows what they’re talking about will tell you a nice gift to the oil companies.