Palin: U.S. on road to ruin, Reagan's values needed now

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — America is on a "road to ruin" because of misguided policies in Washington and needs to get back in step with the values of Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin said at an event honoring the former president's legacy.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee delivered a stinging critique of Washington during her speech Friday, part of the national celebration marking the centennial of Reagan's birth on Feb. 6.
Revisiting themes familiar from her 2008 campaign, she said the nation was being shackled by high debt and taxes, dense government regulation and rising spending, often for programs that don't work. She said a rush toward green energy was overlooking the nation's oil and natural gas reserves, a choice that will cut jobs and raise gas prices.
She blamed Washington leaders for doing "everything in their power to stymie responsible domestic drilling. This is dangerous. This is insane. This is not the road to national greatness, it is the road to ruin."
She alluded to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, saying it amounted to a statement that "the era of big government is here to stay."
Palin was asked to talk about Reagan's 1964 speech, "A Time for Choosing," which he gave on behalf of then-Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. In it, he talks at length about the dangers of high taxes and encroaching big government, as well as strong national security.
Time for choosing
She said the decisions the nation faces are not unlike those Reagan talked of in the 1960s.
"This is a time for choosing again, and the vision we outline here is just as stark as it was in 1964. But we must look over the horizon, as Reagan did. We must see where these unsound policies will ultimately end, and that's in decline and defeat," she said.
Reagan's son said in an interview that he doesn't see anything in common between his dad and Palin.
"Sarah Palin is a soap opera, basically. She's doing mostly what she does to make money and keep her name in the news," Ron Reagan said.
Tea partiers rail against soaring public debt and sprawling government programs like Social Security and Medicare. But public debt roughly tripled on Reagan's watch and he did not attempt to dismantle Social Security or Medicare, says Reagan biographer Lou Cannon.