Palin: Obama Will Raise Taxes On Special Needs Trusts

From CBS News' Scott Conroy:

(PITTSBURGH) - In her first policy speech as a vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin laid out details of how she would commit to helping children with special needs.

The Alaska governor, whose infant son Trig has Down syndrome, said that a McCain/Palin administration would allow more flexibility for parents to choose their children’s schools, committed to fully fund the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, and promised to reform and refocus special needs services.

Though she has previously declared that this issue should be nonpartisan, Palin said that Barack Obama’s tax plan would hurt families who establish financial trusts to care for their special needs kids.

“Understandably then, many families with special needs children or dependent adults, they’re concerned about in this race our opponent in this election who plans to raise taxes on precisely these kinds of financial arrangements,” she said.

“They fear that Sen. Obama’s tax increase will have serious and harmful consequences and they’re right because the burden that his plan would pose upon these families is just one more example of how many plans can be disrupted and how many futures can be placed at risk and how many people can suffer when the power to tax is misused.”

Palin said that Obama has “an ideological commitment” to raising taxes, while she and John McCain will lower taxes to promote growth.

“We’ll protect the savings and the earnings of American families, and we’ll allow more of that investment and the prioritization via our own families to make the difference here,” she said.