PALIN STILL STRUGGLING WITH POLICY DETAILS…. It’s fairly routine for conservative bloggers to write dubious posts about misleading Wall Street Journal editorials. It’s a little less common when former governors and candidates for national office do it.
The WSJ ran an editorial yesterday on the U.S. Export-Import Bank extending a $2 billion loan to Petrobras, a Brazilian oil company, which wants to expand its offshore drilling in South America. The Journal found it ironic that the U.S. would make it easier to drill for oil off the shores of another country.
The editorial prompted Sarah Palin to head back to Facebook to share some thoughts on the matter.
[W]hy is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? […]
[Obama] chooses to use American dollars in Brazil that will help to pay the salaries and benefits for Brazilians to drill for resources when the need and desire is great in America.
Sarah Palin seems to be confused. Again.
In this case, Palin apparently doesn’t know what the U.S. Export-Import Bank does. A spokesperson for the bank told Ben Smith yesterday that the loans are used to help foreign companies purchase American goods and services.
The spokesperson, Phil Cogan, noted that Palin wants American resources to be used to create jobs in the United States, and that’s precisely what this loan would do — financing U.S. engineering services, sales of ships to service oil platforms, or drilling equipment.
“This is the government doing what it’s supposed to do: Create jobs and make sure that Americans get a fair shot at selling goods and services — not the British or the French or anyone else — and to help American workers compete on a level playing field,” Cogan added.
An Obama administration official said, “This is like her and her death panels. This is one more example of, ‘Let’s take a situation with a kernel of truth and blow it up and not let the facts ruin a good story.’”
There was at least a possibility that Palin, after quitting her day job, would use her free time to read up on public policy. I’m afraid she’s off to a weak start.
