Sarah Palin Launches New Attacks on Government Stimulus

To hear Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tell it, the U.S. government wants to help its citizenry now so that it can control them later. In a speech in Anchorage yesterday, where she introduced Ronald Reagan's son Michael, Palin reiterated her belief that the federal government had no business trying to fix the economy with bailouts and stimulus.

"Since when can you get out of huge national debt by creating trillions of dollars in new debt?" Palin asked. "It all really is so backwards and skewed as to sound like absolute nonsense when some of this economic policy is explained."

Of course, the vast majority of economists in America argued in favor of the course of action that Palin finds so troubling. Stimulating the economy, even while expanding debt, is not exactly a new or a controversial idea. In fact, Palin might have realized that the father of the man she was introducing had done just that back in the 80's. Still, Palin pressed on with her contention that fixing the economy basically boils down to telling the government to go away.

"Some in Washington would approach our economic woes in ways that absolutely defy Economics 101, and they fly in the face of principles, providing opportunity for industrious Americans to succeed or fail on their own accord."

In other words, why should we expand unemployment benefits to those who have lost their jobs in this recession? Why should we expand health care to kids with the SCHIP program? Has America really become so lazy that it can't figure out these problems without a hand out from Uncle Sam?

The practical reality of this philosophical divide has played out in states like Alaska, where the legislature has told Palin in no uncertain terms she had best accept all of the federal stimulus cash coming its way. Fellow presidential aspirant Mark Sanford--the Republican governor of South Carolina--also received bad news yesterday, when the state's Supreme Court ruled that he must accept all of the $700 million heading his way from Washington.

David at Paradigms Lost
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