Sarah Palin claims she was for earmarks before she was against them.
As it turns out, she was for them... and is for them.
This year Palin has requested of Ted Stevens more earmarks per person than any other state in the union.
Instead, earmarks — pet projects that members of Congress fund but that no federal agency has requested — have become a mainstay of political life here, and one that Palin embraced from early on in her career as a mayor of Wasilla to the governor's mansion in Juneau.
Just this year, she sent to Sen. Ted. Stevens, R-Alaska, a proposal for 31 earmarks totaling $197 million — more, per person, than any other state.
More per person than any other state.
Alaska this year was in such a money-flushed condition — with no state income tax or sales tax and total state revenues of $10 billion, double the previous year's — that Palin gained legislative approval for $1,200 cash payments to every Alaskan.
In addition, each Alaska resident gets an annual dividend check, about $2,000 this year, from Alaska's oil-wealth savings account, known as the Permanent Fund, now fattened to more than $35 billion.
They have a huge surplus, gained from oil taxes as Obama suggests for the whole nation and which McCain rejects... and Alaska is still living off of federal welfare in the form of earmarks. Yup, they're a redstate alright.