After reading about Palin's love for earmarks, I decided to look into Alaska to see why the state is so special. I had no idea how special it is.
Details below:
The Feds are collecting our taxes and sending them to Alaska, particularly, thanks to Sarah, to Wasilla:
The state's residents receive that subsidy from the rest of us despite the fact that they receive an annual payment for oil royalties and pay virtually no taxes of their own. Some facts from Wikipedia
The Alaska Permanent Fund is a legislatively controlled appropriation established in 1976 to manage a surplus in state petroleum revenues from the recently constructed Trans-Alaska Pipeline System... Starting in 1982, dividends from the fund's annual growth have been paid out each year to eligible Alaskans, ranging from $331.29 in 1984 to $1963.86 in 2000...Alaska has the lowest individual tax burden in the United States,[40] and is one of only five states with no state sales tax and one of seven states that do not levy an individual income tax.
If you think this sounds like a socialist state, you'd be wrong. It's a Republican paradise. Again, fron Wikipedia:
In presidential elections, the state's electoral college votes have been almost always won by a Republican nominee. No state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate fewer times...Alaska's members of the U.S. Congress are all Republican. U.S. Senator Ted Stevens was appointed to the position following the death of U.S. Senator Bob Bartlett in December 1968, and has not lost a re-election campaign since. As the longest-serving Republican in the Senate (sometimes nicknamed "Senator-For-Life" and often referred to as "Uncle Ted"), Stevens has been a crucial force in gaining federal money for his state...Republican Frank Murkowski held the state's other senatorial position. After being elected governor in 2002, he resigned. He then appointed his daughter, State Representative Lisa Murkowski as his successor.
Despite the fact that it would turn off the Federal spigot, Todd Palin would like Alaska to secede.
And Sarah Palin thinks the Alaska Independence Party is doing "good work":
Why should these blood suckers have two senators and three electoral college votes? Do we really need to keep Alaska on the dole? I say, let them secede.