Wasilla: The Welfare City-State

We keep hearing about how Palin is a crusader against government spending (e.g., she put the state's private jet on Ebay). But Alaska, of course, receives a huge amount of federal aid. I decided to look back at her record as mayor of Wasilla. According to Wikipedia's post on Palin:

During her second term as mayor, Palin hired the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for earmarks for Wasilla. The effort was led by Steven Silver, a former chief of staff for Senator Ted Stevens,[29] and it secured nearly $27 million in earmarked funds. The earmarks included $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project linking Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood.[30] Some of the earmarks were criticized by Senator McCain.[31]

Now, let's be generous and accept the Republican claim that Wasilla is a town of 10,000 people. (Wikipedia puts the population as of 2000 at 5,469.) $27 million in earmarks is $2700 per person. That's on top of an oil-driven state budget surplus that sends Alaskans money every year. If Alaska is the kept lady of states, Wasilla has to be her love nest. I got to get me some of that.

To extrapolate, if my home town, Houston, received that much federal money per person in earmarks -- it would come out to 5.2 billion dollars. Can you imagine what McCain would say?