Dismantling the NYT's Misrepresentations of Governor Palin's Record

To be fair, I don't think most people realized how high the highest rate would be until well after it was passed (sound familiar). Many in the state legislature had their hand in the convoluted wording. It takes a team of lawyers and accountants to figure it all out.

You are being fair and understanding indeed. I too try to be most careful and give the benefit of the doubt where possible.

But in this case I respectfully disagree. You and I would not excuse a teacher that assigned a textbook to students without fully understanding what's in it. We would not excuse a doctor that assigned a pill without knowing fully what's in it. We would not excuse a financial adviser who recommended a financial security without knowing it. I cannot excuse lawmakers for doing the same; it's their duty to know.

The only reason we may be even tempted to excuse such a behavior is that we've gotten too used to it: there is probably not a bill nowadays that wouldn't be hundreds of pages long. We are tempted to think, "Yes, it is truly hard to stay on top of so much detail." Yes, it is hard. But, if it is too hard, they should not pass such bills. This country not only survived with simpler and less numerous laws but even grew and became prosperous. I simply cannot accept this status quo and excuse law makers for not understanding the bills they themselves pass.

Well, yes and no. First of all no matter how ACES is presented it’s not a “Palin” bill. She didn’t write it, though she did battle for provisions that were supposed to limit the effective tax. There was a huge anti-oil fervor in AK at the time. Some of it justified, much of it was as it turned out overblown and stoked by what we later learned to be prosecutorial misconduct and malfeasance on the part of the FBI. Palin was elected to to clean things up. ACES was indeed viewed as a tax increase to punish big oil for their buying and owning the State Government. The problem was that it got out of hand and became a frenzy for certain “left leaning” politicians both Republican and Democrat. The public was a big cheerleader all the while not fully grasping the actual bill contents. So she was at fault for maybe not putting the brakes on. But, a lot of Alaskans own a portion of the blame; including myself. Hind sight is 20-20. Now we have to fix it..........that much is clear.

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