No, you don't know her record or you would never make such a statement about her interaction with these oil companies. You obviously don't understand the complex relationship Alaskans have with the big oil empires that for years controlled their state.
BTW, I also like Bobby Jindal, but I don't see the need to pit him against Palin. They're both strong voices of a younger conservative movement. Conservatives shouldn't feel the need to eat their own. The people of Alaska own their natural resources. 85% of the state’s revenue comes from taxes on oil and gas. Those are finite resources. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. With oil prices at record highs and the oil wells depleting, she made an excellent and fiscally responsible decision to renegotiate the Severance Tax paid by the oil companies to the people of Alaska. These oil empires had illegally been buying off politicians to keep the severance tax artificially low. That's why the FBI came in to investigate these corruption charges, and that's why so many of these politicians are now in jail! These companies don’t care about Alaska’s future. They don’t care what happens to the state when the oil wells run dry. She does! Alaska’s history is replete with one example after another of outsiders exploiting the natural resources and leaving behind ghost towns when the good times finished rolling. Sarah Palin is an avowed Alaskan history buff. She’s well aware of what these oil empires will do when they’re through with Alaska. They'll leave it high and dry. She increased that Severance Tax to prepare for the day when that would happen.
When production is up, the tax goes down. When the production is down, the tax goes up. It's a win win for the oil companies and the people of Alaska. What Palin did was end the corruption between the politicians and the oil companies. Any "Tax increase" is just the end of a tax loophole that these companies used to get. Crony capitalism is not real capitalism. If you own a product, there is nothing wrong with trying to negotiate the best price for your product. That's all that Governor Palin did on behalf of her beloved Alaskans.
“That’s why the FBI came in to investigate these corruption charges, and that’s why so many of these politicians are now in jail!”
good, they did their part. But there is no reason for the govt to raise taxes on the people who actually do all the work. I’m always skeptical whenever the govt comes up with a new reason to raise taxes on *anybody.*
And it’s never crony capitalism when taxes are cut. Crony capitalism is when the govt bails out companies or when it punishes some companies in order to benefit the competing companies with the biggest lobbyists.
You wrote: Conservatives shouldn’t feel the need to eat their own.
I agree but we have to be careful. We just had the experience of 8 years of George W Bush. He won the base because he connected with the folks and said and did a few conservative things. And then he completely fell apart. I really don’t want that to happen again...we have such a terrible guy in charge.