Why does Sarah Palin brag about tax increases?

[Syrinx]

TUSCALOOSA | Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin likes to brag about how she "took on the oil companies" and won during her brief stint as governor of Alaska. What she is talking about is a massive tax increase she and the legislature imposed on the oil and gas industry last year.

The economy of Alaska, where there is no income or sales taxes, is based almost exclusively on the extraction of natural resources and as oil prices were soaring, Palin led the way in upping the already huge taxes on the industry to the point where the state collected an extra $6 billion from the new tax.

That allowed the Alaska government to cut $1,200 checks last August to every citizens of one of the smallest states in the nation by population. That is in addition to the annual $2,000 checks they were already getting, thanks to the already high taxes on the oil companies and the largess of the state government.

This all-eggs-in-on-tax-basket economic model sounds like a strange way to run a state to me -- what if oil prices suddenly plummet or an alternative for fossil fuels magically appears? -- and it certainly helps to explain why Palin is the leading "Drill, baby, drill!" cheerleader.

But the next time you hear this candidate of the party of low taxes brag about whipping the butts of Exxon and all the others, just remember what she is talking about: a major tax increase.

http://politibits.tuscaloosanews.com/default.asp?item=2268606&mode=

EDIT: Added a "T."

[endthewar]

1. Biden cornered her good on the windfall profits tax on oil companies during the debate

I think she just went off on a complete tangent though.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Yup and she had to concede it was a Windfall Profits Tax

and yup, per the previous poster, Biden not only cornered her, but sealed the deal forcing her to agree by her silence.