Palin Sounds Deceptive Alarm On Taxes, Tweaks Energy Claim Following Fact Check
(VIENNA, OHIO) - Sarah Palin unleashed a torrent of criticism against Barack Obama's tax plan at an airport hanger rally with John McCain, saying it would "make even today's bad economy look like the good old days."
"He wants to raise income taxes and he wants to raise payroll taxes and raise investment income taxes and raise the death tax and raise business taxes," Palin said. "That's his plan. He actually proposes to raise taxes in this hurting economy."
But Palin's warning on income and investment taxes only applies to those who make more than $250,000 a year. Obama's plan calls for a hike in investment taxes and an elimination of the Bush income tax cuts only for such families.
Obama would give workers making under $150,000 credits of $500 and up to $1,000 per family.
Palin devoted a significant portion of her Ohio speech to the economy and tried to break down the financial crisis on Wall Street to make it seem relevant to everyday Americans.
"Also, two out of every three Americans have a stake in the market and that is through pensions and 401ks and IRAs and the like," she said. "Families across America have a right to expect that their interests and their investments will be protected. Instead what's going on now—huge investment banks are going under because of their own bad practices and then they are asking the public to bail them out."
She said that McCain was a "proven reformer" who would clean up Wall Street.
Palin also spoke extensively on energy policy, which she said would be one of the issues on which she would focus as vice president. She touted her record in Alaska but chose her words more carefully than she has in the past.
"As governor my job has been to oversee such a great portion of the oil development, the production levels in our domestic supply in the U.S. I had to take on the big oil company interests."
Palin had previously said that she oversaw nearly 20 percent of the nation's energy supply, but that claim was untrue. A fact check showed that Alaska only produced 14 percent of the oil from U.S. wells, and the state's total energy production was actually just 3.5 percent of the entire nation's output.
