Post-Palin Alaska has largest debt burden in US
"Sarah Palin has long sold herself as a fiscal conservative, arguing against the Democrats' health overhaul on the grounds that the nation simply can't afford it.
When, Sarah Palin, the unsucessful vice presidential candidate, resigned as governor of Alaska in the summer of 2009, she left the state with a 70 percent debt-to-GDP ratio -- the highest state debt burden in the United States.
That's according to data compiled by the Washington Independent's Megan Carpentier, who notes that Alaska has a debt burden similar to "that of Jordan and Palin's favorite health care resource, Canada, and a higher ratio than Ghana, India, the Philippines or Uruguay."
By comparison, crisis-stricken California has a debt ratio of less than 40 percent.
What makes observine Republican governance in Alaska all the more confounding about Alaska's debt is the fact that it is an oil-producing region with a small population to share in that wealth. Oil-rich Alberta, Canada, for example, collects no sales tax and still managed to retire its debt entirely in 2004.
Alaska's massive debt burden can't be blamed entirely on Palin's two-and-a-half-year stint as governor, she did face similar debt problems while mayor of Wasilla, and those appear to be of her own making."
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