And a withering piece by Mike Kinsley in Time explaining the actual truth about Alaska:
Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it.
If we (Americans) lived in a, you know, reality-based country, people would just read this article and say "OK, this is just a big joke, right?" But we live in a country where by definition in politics you can be a decent human being only if you live in a town of 15,000 or fewer people.
There's a lot more in this Kinsley piece. Alaska, as you probably know by now, has something called the Permanent Fund, which is just a Christmas present to everyone who lives in the state (around $2,000 a year) from the taxes on oil revenues. So the state literally gives money away. Tough job! But even so:
As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.
It's just astonishing the picture of Alaska and Palin that the media -- and the Democrats -- have participated in creating.
