GOP now supporting and promoting welfare?

[Thinker]

Image Source www.tax.alaska.gov

*In FFY 2005, Alaska received $1.84 for every dollar paid in federal taxes [1]. On a per capita basis, more federal money is spent in Alaska than in any other state (see Figure 6-3). For FFY 2005, federal direct expenditures in Alaska increased by 9.7% from FFY 2004.

*Alaska is the only state that does not collect state sales tax or levy an individual income tax on any type of personal income, either earned or unearned. To finance state operations, Alaska depends primarily on petroleum revenues.[2]

*Windfall Taxes?. Over the opposition of oil companies, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska's Legislature last year approved a major increase in taxes on the oil industry — a step that has generated stunning new wealth for the state as oil prices soared.[3] At a time when the rest of us Americans are feeling the pinch at the gasoline pump and oil companies are raking in record profits [4], Sarah Palin's economic and energy policy decisions should be part of the debate this election.

Alaska collected an estimated $6 billion from the new tax during the fiscal year that ended June 30. [5] That helped push the state's total oil revenue — from new and existing taxes, as well as royalties — to more than $10 billion, nearly double the amount received last year.

While many other states are confronting big budget deficits because of the troubled economy, Alaska officials are in the enviable position of exploring new ways to spend the state's multibillion-dollar budget surplus. [6]

Some of that new cash will end up in the wallets of Alaska's residents. Palin's administration gained legislative approval for a special $1,200 payment to every Alaskan to help cope with gas prices, which are among the highest in the country. [7]

That check will come on top of the annual dividend of about $2,000 that each resident could receive this year from an oil-wealth savings account. [8]

This "conservative" model of how to generate revenue from higher taxes might be on to something, maybe we could afford to pay off that deficit thingy which grew to $10,310,543,896,951.40 as of this writing.

So, did the windfall tax Sarah Palin imposed on the oil companies cause some of the "highest gas prices in the country"?

Perhaps if these oil companies had kept more of the profits they earned they could be raising wages or hiring employees....

Sarah Palin's solution is to take profits from oil companies to help pay Joe Six Pack's unaffordable energy bill, which was caused by overpriced-overtaxed oil/gas.

my brain is about to explode

[polymath22]

So, basically, the Federal Government taxes Americans evenly per capita from every state, and then Alaska gets back in line to get the largest per capita share of it?

Sounds like an income redistribution scheme... WTF. I guess Republicans like Robin Hood schemes when they benefit from them.

[polymath22]

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