Wednesday 31 March 2010

Sarah Palin, fiscal conservative?

Sarah Palin loves to blow her own trumpet as the ultimate fiscal conservative.

The Washington Independent reveals that Alaska has big liabilities:

Less than a year after then-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) quit the government to pursue other projects, Alaska leads the way in its debt-to-GDP ratio when its unfunded pension obligations are taken into account, followed by Rhode Island, New Mexico, Ohio and Mississippi. And although Alaska’s ratio is far lower than Greece’s, it does give the state a debt-to-GDP ratio similar to that of Jordan and Palin’s favorite health care resource, Canada, and a higher ratio than Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, India, the Philippines or Uruguay.

The New York Times shows a table which illustrates these liabilities very well:

GDP graph

Sarah Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996. I made some screenshots of the financial statements for the years 1996 and 2002, when Sarah Palin finished her second term as mayor.

wasilla debt summary 95-96

wasilla debt summary 2002


The figures scream fiscal conservative, don't they?
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