By The McCain Campaign’s Own Definition, Palin Is A ‘Wealth Spreader’
By The McCain Campaign’s Own Definition, Palin Is A ‘Wealth Spreader’
In recent days, both Fox News and the Associated Press have called out the McCain campaign for its hypocritical criticism of Sen Barack Obama’s (D-IL) tax plan. Both Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) have referred to Obama as the “Redistributor in Chief” or “Barack the Wealth Spreader.” Back in Alaska, however, Palin strengthened the state’s redistributive policies, instituting a windfall profits tax to ensure that Alaskans got their “equitable” share of oil companies’ profits.
Despite this, McCain campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb, maintains that Alaska does not redistribute wealth. Echoing McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds’s recent claim, Goldfarb told Fox News yesterday:
“This is not redistribution in the sense of you take money away from one guy who’s working real hard, and give it away to someone who’s not working at all.”
In fact, that is exactly what Alaska’s Permanent Fund dividend payments do. Each year since 1976, “[a]t least 25 percent of all mineral lease rentals, royalties, royalty sales proceeds, federal mineral revenue-sharing payments and bonuses” taken in by the state — predominantly from the oil industry — are “placed in a permanent fund.” A portion of that fund’s annual earnings are “transferred to the State’s dividend fund,” which is then divided among Alaskans in the form of yearly dividend checks.
As Sandy Parr at the Alaska Department of Revenue confirmed to ThinkProgress, every resident of Alaska, even “someone who’s not working at all,” is eligible for a dividend payment — this year totaling $3,269.
Palin herself recently explained the dividend program to the New Yorker, saying:
And Alaska—we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs. … It’s to maximize benefits for Alaskans, not an individual company, not some multinational somewhere, but for Alaskans.
By Goldfarb’s own definition, Palin is a “Wealth Spreader.”
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Palin: “And Alaska—we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources.”
Oooo, collectively… does that means Alaska is a collective? That sounds suspiciously socialistic to me….
October 31st, 2008 at 5:40 pmLet’s take it another obvious step. When your state takes more in federal revenue (i.e. tax dollars) than it pays in taxes, you are redistributing the wealth on a national scale. Alaska, thanks to its corrupt congressional delegation leads the nation in that distinction. Palin not only spreads the wealth by handing out oil money, she balances her budget with the earmarks her crooked cronies bring back from our taxes. Governor or government welfare queen? You decide.
October 31st, 2008 at 5:42 pm“This is not redistribution in the sense of you take money away from one guy who’s working real hard, and give it away to someone who’s not working at all.”
As I recall, in Obama’s answer to Joe the unlicensed,non-union plumber, he was talking about a tax cut for the middle class instead of more giveaways for the rich, to spread the wealth to the middle class that is creating said wealth. There wasn’t any word of giving it to someone not working, not even to the idle rich, sitting by the poolside waiting for the dividend checks.
October 31st, 2008 at 5:46 pmPalin is qualified to do this because growing up, she could see the U.S.S.R. from Alaska. So, if anyone’s qualified to call someone out for being a socialist, and to use doublespeak in the process, it’s her. Right?
Right?
October 31st, 2008 at 5:47 pmGoldfarb is ridiculous.
Just shut up already.
October 31st, 2008 at 5:55 pmGoldfarb is a great example of what dopes these ideologues are. If you saw him with Rich Sanchez you know what I mean. The guy comes off as an ignorant thug. It’s amazing how low standards have become in conservative circles. Evidently, all you need is to be a loudmouth who holds the correct ideological dogma and you can go far… but only so far. You also have to deal with the outside world and if you can’t deal with a crypto-conservative Cubano like Sanchez, how the heck would you expect to do with a Rhodes Scholar liberal like Rachel Maddow?
October 31st, 2008 at 5:55 pm49erDem, I saw him with Sanchez and, honestly, I could do a better job as a pundit. Why anyone bothers to talk to an idiot like Goldfarb is beyond me. I hope that this is the last we see of him and his ilk. I’ll bet that Rachel would never even think to invite him on.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:00 pmShe’s a spreader alright — but it ain’t wealth she’s spreadin’ (you betcha).
I’ve got one of those spreaders for the garden…
October 31st, 2008 at 6:05 pmWith gas prices still in the mid 2.50s here, Exxon is taking my money, Palin is giving to Alaskans. This is pretty easy to figure out my milkshake is being drunk, drank, drinked.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:09 pmEvidently, all you need is to be a loudmouth who holds the correct ideological dogma and you can go far…
See O’Reilly, Bill; Limbaugh, Rush; Hannity, Sean, Savage, Weiner, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:09 pmThis Goldfarb character has really been sticking his foot in his mouth for the McCain campaign. First he can’t name another “anti-Semite” that Barack knows, and now he Goldfarb perfectly depicts Palin as a wealth spreader.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:14 pmThe hypocrisy of the McCain campaign has reached epic proportions as Palin even lauded herself (one of her supposed accomplishments in her full career??) as giving back checks to the people and “spreading the wealth around”.
Satirev, don’t you mean “spreadin’ the wealth around”? ;)
October 31st, 2008 at 6:19 pmWhere the hell did they dig this fool up?
See Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, Newt Gingrich…
October 31st, 2008 at 6:22 pmThe only work that’ll be available to many of the McCain campaigns communication staff will be with the Mafia and other secret organizations (Bush Administration) where loyalty is the only criteria for employment.
Tucker Bounds won’t be taken seriously, though neither can the McCain campaign. Maybe that’s why no respectable spokespersons flacked for the campaign.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:28 pmI want what these people are on (medication wise) that prevents them from accepting reality.
Palin doesn’t spread the wealth and wasn’t found to abuse her authority.
Stevens has not been found guilty.
McCain has Obama ‘right where he wants him’
/reality, it’s not for me – Disney Girls by the Beach Boys
October 31st, 2008 at 6:34 pmfrankly, i don’t know why “wealth spreader” got a bad rap!
?
hope you all got your pumpkins carved!
http://yeswecarve.com/
i went with the BOO!
October 31st, 2008 at 6:37 pmActually, Palin and McCain and their lovely surrogates are merely spreading their manure. It’s an ancient Republican tradition, you know, spreading manure just before an election…
October 31st, 2008 at 6:45 pm“This is not redistribution in the sense of you take money away from one guy who’s working real hard, and give it away to someone who’s not working at all.”
Can some Republican tell me why it’s better to take money away from some guy (you and me), and give it to the rich? That’s what’s been going on for years under you Republicans.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:46 pmSocialist! Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Marxist! Bearer of false witness!
October 31st, 2008 at 6:51 pm“every resident of Alaska”
even babies?
’cause that’s quite an incentive to have babies…
if ya know what i mean…
October 31st, 2008 at 6:51 pmA “wealth spreader”? I call her a “B.S. spreader”.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:07 pmCan’t we get this same deal in all the other states too? A little bit of Exxon Mobil’s latest quarter’s earnings… would pay off my mortgage…
October 31st, 2008 at 7:10 pmSarah Palin: “A Neiman Marxist”.
(As seen on Talking Points Memo).
October 31st, 2008 at 7:39 pmGoldfarb looks like he has been smoking weed in that picture.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:59 pmDarth Vulgar Says:
Goldfarb looks like he has been smoking weed in that picture.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Must be laced with something, because I can’t see that even primo stuff could make anyone that delusional.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:51 pmNo wonder McCain’s bid for the top job is doing so poorly. With halfwits like Goldfarb and Bounds in charge of spreading the talking points no campaign could ever be successful.
They are both embarrassingly stupid.
I think I detect a pattern, by the way, in the people McCain has chosen to surround himself with.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:14 pm.
… Because nothing says “SPREADING THE WEALTH” in a welfare State like dividend checks from privatized energy corporations funneled back to the people.
.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:15 pmHere’s my Halloween nightmare…………Stevens loses his appeal and goes to prison and little miss wealth spreader nominates herself which as Governor, she can legally do. Can you even imagine her as a Senator??
Sorry to put that thought in your head before bedtime.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:22 pmYeah, thanks, kraftysue! I guess I won’t be sleeping much until November 5th anyway. :(
October 31st, 2008 at 9:30 pmlook at the picture. who is this d#chebag, and why is the top of his head seemingly congealing? did they drag this guy away from a particularly lively “kegger”? looks like it, i’m sure ‘fratboy jock d#chebags” are one of the few key mccain constituiences left..
October 31st, 2008 at 10:42 pmi just found about this pudgy doofus a few days ago and i’m already sick of him. how is he even newsworthy? he’s a complete suckup and a putz.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:30 amHistory will record that Republicans were either too stupid or too dissociated to know they were socialists. These people will keep historians laughing for decades to come.
November 1st, 2008 at 6:57 am…and that’s Governor Freeloader, the rest of you people.
November 1st, 2008 at 1:34 pmThe proper term, sir, is Freeloader.
November 1st, 2008 at 1:34 pmBut you don’t understand. Since we’re doing it, it’s not socialism. It’s only when the Democrats do it that it’s socialism. It’s all perfectly logical. http://straighttalkonmccain.blogspot.com/
November 1st, 2008 at 9:59 pmkraftysue Says:
Here’s my Halloween nightmare…………Stevens loses his appeal and goes to prison and little miss wealth spreader nominates herself which as Governor, she can legally do. Can you even imagine her as a Senator??
Sorry to put that thought in your head before bedtime.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yeah my wife was talking about that but you can rest assured for that scenario to hold up Stevens would have to WIN and have the seat to vacate. Since he is getting TROUNCED right now that just doesnt look likely. By the way where is that troll who kept jamming all the Stevens threads about how he was being railroaded and he was innocent and would be aquited. It looks like he cut and ran
November 1st, 2008 at 10:09 pm“So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs”……..sounds like socialism to me, Sarah.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:49 pm