Sarah Palin sat down Friday night with Tribune-Review political reporter Salena Zito for a wide-ranging interview that covered the economy, education, energy and the Alaska governor's approach to governing. It was Palin's first face-to-face interview with a print reporter as Republican vice presidential candidate. John McCain's running mate was in Pittsburgh for a fundraiser at the Westin Convention Center Hotel, Downtown.
About stimulating the economy:
Palin: Energy independence ... certainly will stimulate our economy, circulating the dollars that we're presently spending overseas and in other countries; ... but also the clean coal technology that we got to be able to tap into; and the alternative sources of energy; and also, and as we wean ourselves off the hydrocarbons, the conservation efforts that Americans have got to undertake. So, we got that all-of-the-above approach towards energy independence that we need.
But also -- reducing taxes on our businesses, so that our businesses can keep more of what they're owing and what they are producing and what they are earning, and that way they’ll be able to hire more people. That’s how jobs are created.
So, those two parts of the solution ... and then also government spending, reining that in for now so that we can get a handle on this $10 trillion debt. ... We got to get a handle on every agency, every expenditure. Those things that are absolutely vital ... keeping those things going, but then freezing the spending on other areas of government. We get in there and find the efficiencies that can be created and just spending other people’s money wiser than how we’re spending it today to get a handle on that debt.
About small businesses:
Palin: My husband and I ... owned a business ... and struggled to figure out how are were going to offer (employees) health care and make payrolls, some months, of course, being such a struggle. And then ... my sister and her husband just opened up a service station up there in Alaska also. And I think of my sister, Heather, and her husband, Kurt, and I think now how will increasing taxes on a small business like theirs help them? It will not help them. It will prohibit Kurt from hiring more employees and then those people who cannot get that job, they will become more and more reliant unfortunately on kind of a bureaucratic system that sometimes in a way penalizes hard work and productivity. So it’s win-win if business taxes are reduced like I did in the city of Wasilla where I was mayor. I eliminated small business inventory taxes, wanting again for small businesses to be able to grow and prosper and thrive.
About improving education:
Palin: I’m a governor of a state where I believe in state’s rights and John McCain too. ... As a federalist, he’s saying -- come on -- let our states and let our local districts have more control of curriculum, have more control of their districts, get the federal government out of the business of telling our local districts what they can and cannot do, especially unfunded mandates coming down from the feds ... too many politicians in D.C. (are) so out of touch with the most responsive and responsible level of government -- that’s the local level; that’s your city councils and your borough assemblies and your county commissioners and your local school districts. Let them have more say and more control and really that is the way to turn things around in education also.
How her experience as a mayor and Alaska governor has prepared her to be vice president:
Palin: Yeah, well, I think, of the four candidates, I’m the only one with the executive experience. That needs to be put to good use here, because of course, it’s an executive office that I’m seeking there, and as a mayor and manager and as a small-business owner, as a governor, as a commissioner of regulating oil and gas, that executive experience will be put to very good use. But you know I think even more important than that ... is the world view that John McCain and I share. And that world view is that America is, of course, for good in this world, and we have such a great potential here. We’ve got to get our economy back on track so that we can start reaching that potential. Our world view, too, ... is the vision that Ronald Reagan used to talk about that America just being a beacon of hope for others seeking tolerance and freedom and equal rights, women’s rights. That America needs to be allowed to get back to that place in our world.
About how being a woman would affect her approach to vice presidential duties and decision-making:
Palin: I believe we, perhaps, have less patience for some of the baloney that goes on and some of the time that is wasted, that I think as moms, as women, we don’t have the patience in terms of allowing time to be wasted. There’s just too much to do. So how that would relate to politics is –- I’m not going to let and I’ve never let -- obsessive partisanship get in the way of just doing what’s right for the people whom I’m serving, that’s forced me to take on my own party time and again, and you know I’ve ruffled feathers along the way, too, but it always comes back to, come on, we’ve got work to do, let’s go, don’t have any time to waste.
About her advocacy for special needs children. Her infant son Trig was born with Down syndrome:
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