Sarah Palin Took a Government Handout and Bristol Palin Raked It In

Did you know that Sarah Palin's TV reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska,"was government subsidized?" Yup, Palin's reality show took advantage of state tax credits that Palin herself created as Governor in 2008.

Palin's reality show received a $1.2 million subsidy from the state. Under a state subsidy created by the Legislature in 2008 and signed into law by Palin, Alaska allows film and TV producers to recover 30 percent or more of the money they spend on filming in the state. All told, the Palin show spent $3.6 million in Alaska. This covered almost a third of the show's Alaskan production costs.

Could the fact that Palin took a chunk of taxpayer money to fund her reality TV show come back to bite her if she runs for president next year?

I signed that bill years before I ever imagined I would film a TV series in Alaska, responds Sarah Palin on her Facebook page. And it was the production company, not me, that benefited from the tax break. Besides, Alaska's tax credit program —"an effective way to incentivize a new industry that would diversify our economy" — is indeed consistent with "my position on the proper role of government."

Jim Geraghty at the National Review, doubts that there are many Tea Party leaders who believe governments should "be in the business of subsidizing television programs." Just look at what they're saying about PBS and NPR.

Like Mother, like daughter. Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin’s daughter, joined a teen pregnancy prevention nonprofit called the Candie’s Foundation in 2009. Remember, Bristol became pregnant before being married. However, the Associated Press reported that the Candie’s Foundation released its 2009 tax information, revealing the salary that was paid to Bristol.

Bristol was paid a salary of $262,500.

But a closer examination of the tax form by ThinkProgress shows that the group disbursed only $35,000 in grants to actual teen pregnancy health and counseling clinics: $25,000 to the Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center and $10,000 to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Thus, the nonprofit paid Bristol over seven times what it paid to teen pregnancy prevention groups.

The mom takes government subsidies that she rails against for the poor. The daughter raised money for teen pregnancy prevention but earns more money that the cause she is working for. What lesson will we learn from the Palin's?

Bristol's Awakening

The Media Consortium has an overview of comments regarding Bristol Palin's interview with Fox News.

“I think abstinence is, I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all,” new mother Bristol Palin told Greta Van Susteren in an interview on Fox News (video below). Bristol’s unwed, teenage pregnancy made headlines last year just as her mother, Gov. Sarah Palin, kicked off her vice presidential bid.

Samhita of Feministing.com writes, “I feel bad for her. [Bristol's] story was used by her family and the GOP to make an example of what is considered “responsible” behavior for a teen mom. Holding all that, she istelling the truth that abstinence is not realistic for young people, even if it should be what everyone strives for. Comprehensive sex-ed wouldn’t be this unrealistic.”

In Salon, Rebecca Traister dryly notes that all this honesty was too much for Fox News. As soon as Bristol said what everyone already knew, Sarah Palin hustled on stage to contradict her.

Jodi Jacobsen at RH Reality says it’s time for federal government to acknowledge what Bristol learned the hard way and axe federal funding for abstinence-only education.

Here’s wishing Bristol a happy National Condom Week.. Too bad the stimulus package won’t included expanded opportunities to cover birth control under Medicaid.

At Mother Jones, Taylor Wiles notes that Obama cut $335 million for STD prevention, and that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) nixed $150 million to fund the Violence Against Women Act.

The bottom line is that when abstinence is the only choice for teens then unwed pregnancies do result. As Bristol now knows, abstinence is unrealistic.

It is OK to talk to kids about abstinence but it is also necessary that teens have access to condoms or birth control, if they become sexually active. The glue that holds all these elements together is sex ed, sex ed and more sex ed.