Palin says Obama will raise taxes

CLEARWATER, Fla., Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told a Florida rally Monday Barack Obama wants to establish almost $1 trillion in new programs.

The Alaska governor, addressing a Clearwater crowd estimated at 4,500, said Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. senator from Illinois, would finance those programs by raising their taxes, The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported.

Palin also continued to sound the theme of Obama's alleged ties to William Ayers, a University of Illinois-Chicago professor and former 1960s militant whom she and GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona say influenced the Democrat's views of the United States.

"I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America as you and I do -- as the greatest source for good in the world," the Sentinel reported Palin as saying.

Obama's campaign has denied that Ayers and the nominee were ever close, calling Palin's assertions "offensive," and point out that Obama is calling for tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 a year, the newspaper said.