Gov. Palin: Reallocate funding from "fruit fly research in France" to helping children with special needs

Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) gave her first policy speech of the campaign today in Pittsburgh, focusing on policy adjustment for special needs children. Palin said the money politicians are extracting through earmarks for "pet projects" such as "fruit fly research in France" should be reallocated to "take care of the most vulnerable children." Mentioning motivation from "God's vision of perfection versus the world's vision of perfection," Palin said she would triple the funding for special needs children by 2011 if elected Vice President.

Palin stated that the public school systems are failing to render enough help for special needs children like her son, who has down’s syndrome. She spoke about federal funding to follow every special needs child without "bureaucratic complications or barriers". She pledged to "finally fully fund" the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as well as Individualized Education Programs. Palin said parents of children with disabilities have "enough complications already" and should have more options in schools for their children, whether they be private or public schools.

While Palin and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) intend to "reduce taxes to promote growth" if elected, Palin scrutinized Senator Obama's (D-Ill.) plan to raise taxes because it would have "serious and harmful consequences" for parents of special needs children, who might lose funding for things like Special Needs Trusts.

Will Social Security suffer under an Obama-Biden administration?

The McCain-Palin campaign says the Obama-Biden campaign’s tax plan will have a downward effect on Social Security solvency by giving Americans credit for their payroll tax liability. The campaign’s Senior Policy Adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said the Obama campaign plans to relieve Americans of payroll taxes, and by doing would “rob Social Security indirectly,” because payroll taxes finance social security, as well as medicare.

Former U.S. Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) said, “The rhetoric and record of Barack Obama clearly supports higher taxes and more spending...At a time of financial crisis that we’re all going through right now, the idea of raising taxes is counter to what virtually every economist who has ever written, or studied, or analyzed the situation would recommend. You don’t raise taxes in a fiscal downturn”. Holtz-Eakin explained that the impact of raising taxes hurts small businesses first, who generate “80 to 90 percent of new jobs in America.”

Former Senator Coats added that another one of the main differences between the McCain-Palin campaign and the Obama-Biden campaign is that McCain supports the use of coal in the mid-west, where Coats says there are abundant coal resources and new clean coal technologies.