‘Truth-telling’ Pawlenty may seize the opening in GOP field
For a two-term governor of a decent-size state who’s been running for president all but officially for about a year now, Tim Pawlenty has made surprisingly little noise in the GOP race so far.
That might be about to change.
In a speech Monday making his candidacy official, Pawlenty made clear that his early theme of “truth telling” applies to everyone — including the Iowa audience to whom he was speaking. From RadioIowa (which offers audio of the speech at the link):
Pawlenty called for “big time” cuts in federal spending, including an end to federal subsidies for corn-based ethanol fuel.
“The hard truth is there are no longer any sacred programs,” Pawlenty said. “The truth about federal energy subsidies — including federal subsidies for ethanol — is that they need to be phased out. We need to do it gradually. We need to do it fairly, but we need to do it.”
Pawlenty, as governor of Minnesota, reduced state subsidies for ethanol. According to Pawlenty, it’s time to do the same on the national level “on a much, much larger scale.”
“It can’t be done overnight. The industry has made large investments and it wouldn’t be fair to pull the rug out from under them immediately, but we must face the truth that if we want to invite more competition, more investment and more innovation in the industry, need to get the government out,” Pawlenty said, to applause.
Iowa produces nearly a third of the ethanol in the U.S. converting over a billion bushels of corn into more than 3.6 billion gallons of ethanol each year. Pawlenty presented his proposal to end ethanol subsidies as an example of his commitment to avoid making “fluffy promises of hope and change” and his pledge to outline a “new approach” to governing.
Telling the voters in the nation’s first 2012 primary state that he’d end their most fiercely guarded subsidies? That’s a kind of boldness that contrasts sharply with Newt Gingrich, to name one other GOP aspirant. Pawlenty framed his ethanol approach as part of a pledge to “tell the truth” to everyone:
That’s why later this week I’m going to New York City to tell Wall Street that if I’m elected, the era of bailouts, handouts and carve-outs will be over. No more subsidies, no more special treatment. No more Fannie and Freddie, no more TARP, and no more “too big to fail.”
…
Tomorrow, I’m going to Florida to tell both young people and seniors the truth — that our entitlement programs are on an unsustainable path and that inaction is no longer an option.
Our national debt, combined with Obamacare, have placed Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in real peril. I’ll tell young people the truth that over time and for them only, we’re going to gradually raise their Social Security retirement age.
And I’ll also tell the truth to wealthy seniors that we will means-test Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment.
…
This week I’ll also be in Washington, D.C., to remind the federal bureaucracy that government exists to serve its citizens, not its employees….
That means freezing federal salaries, transitioning federal employee benefits and downsizing the federal workforce as it retires. It means paying public employees for results, not just seniority — from the Capitol to the classroom and everywhere in between.
(via Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post)
For months, I’ve heard members of Congress and other elected officials and politicos talk about how the American people are “ahead of us” in terms of being realistic about the nation’s finances and prepared to deal with it. That’s hard to say: On one hand, you have President Barack Obama, in particular, preaching a notion of “shared sacrifice” that always sounds crafted to make his audience believe someone else will bear a bit bigger share of the burden. On the other hand, you have a host of opinion polls suggesting many Americans believe the problem really does stem from what someone else is doing or getting or not having to pay. And no wonder: Politicians of both parties have been communicating that message, in one form or another, for years.
Pawlenty seems to be betting his candidacy on the idea that voters truly will buy into the idea of shared sacrifice — if it’s presented warts and all, without favoritism.
That’s what it’ll take to fix the problem. In about eight months, we’ll find out whether he’s just in time or ahead of his time.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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94 comments Add your comment
truthteller
May 24th, 2011
10:42 am
And this is the BibleBelt? Listen to all the blame assigners..the seniors caused this proble!! Duh! how about the D.C. politicians bought and paid for the moneyed class who want their millions protected and screw everyone else. The trick is working! Middle class focusing on fighting one another for the crumbs. One group agains the other and now one generation angains the other. How sad and predictable. Will the rich worry about the demise of healthcare for the elderly and the
lessing of the social security check/ Hell no, they can afford to do with out either.
Mudfoot
May 24th, 2011
10:45 am
Peadawg sounds like a real winner…if you think Obama win that easily AND retake both houses, please tell me what you are smoking…must be some great stuff. Do you not remember what happened in the last midterm elections? take that and multiply it by ten and you get 2012. Idiot
Joe, I could be wrong, but that 10:00 post sure doesn’t sound like something the genuine Peadawg would put up, even in sarcasm. I’m fairly sure that’s a namejacker.
Kyle Wingfield
May 24th, 2011
10:53 am
Bart: It seems there were some flaws in the AP’s fact check, too: http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/34489
Kyle Wingfield
May 24th, 2011
10:53 am
Mudfoot @ 10:45: I think you’re right about the comment by Peadawg being an impostor. I’ve removed it.
Chuck Doberman
May 24th, 2011
10:55 am
TT 10:42
Ummm… you might want to go elsewhere TT. You’ll either be ignored or crucified if you keep posting about truth and common sense around here. Reality along with the deficit are unimportant. You might try appealing to the darker part of human nature, tossing out some talking points and slinging some labels and insults around…
brad
May 24th, 2011
10:58 am
Right, Kyle, the peadawg post was not filled with right wing venom. And for this you went to journalism school?
joe
May 24th, 2011
11:13 am
Ah, then my apologies to the real peadawg…
Jefferson
May 24th, 2011
11:17 am
Tough to find a republican that has not proven to be uncreditable. Do they even exist ? I hope they go for the women, their logic meshes well.
Linda
May 24th, 2011
11:54 am
One of the reports from the Financial Inquiry Commission appointed by Obama to study the cause of the economic crisis states, “the govt., which held the credit risk on most of the subprime & other weak mortgages outstanding…the govt….was following a social policy…There were three important ways that the govt. PUSHED investors toward investing in mortgage debt…Third, & most important…the largest investors in the mortgage market, the govt.-sponsored entities (GSEs)–Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac–were instruments of US govt. housing policy…the biggest participants in the mortgage market were the GSEs…GSEs were also BOUND by a set of “affordable housing goals” established in the 1992 GSE Act…goals increased as a part of a new housing policy agenda that began during the mid-1990s under …Clinton & continued through the 2000s under…Bush…subsidizing mortgages through the GSEs…”
There is plenty of blame to go around for the economic crisis but there is no doubt that it started with the fed. govt.’s intervention into the housing market in the ’90s for the sake of social justice.
http://keithhennessey.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Financial-Crisis-Primer.pdf
Whacks Eloquent
May 24th, 2011
11:57 am
Either way I am glad to hear several candidates finally outing ethanol for the scam it is. How much of one of our natural resources must we continue to waste? It drives up the price of food by limiting supply, that corn would be much better served to help feed our nation and the world. And without gov’t assistance, the ethanol market would pretty much fizzle on its own.
Linda
May 24th, 2011
12:14 pm
The extension of the Bush tax cuts in Dec./10 seems to be working. This is a report that compares FY10 with FY11 thru the month of April. It includes all sources of taxes & refunds. Bottom line, total tax revenues have increased $109.8 B this year over the same period last year.
(This was unpredicted & is part of the reason the govt. has not shut down.)
The problem is that expenditures have increased from FY10 of $1.99 T to FY11 of $2.17T ($180 B).
WE HAVE A SPENDING PROBLEM!
Among the 28 major fed. agencies, 17 have spent more thus far in FY11 than at the same point in FY10:
Health & Human Services, a $21.7B increase
SS Adm., a $15.6 B increase &
Treasury, a $123 B increase
The INTEREST on the debt by Apr. in FY10 was $224.4 B & is $244.4 B so far for FY11. It accounts for 11.2% of the entire govt. expenditures in 2011!!!!
http://www.leftandrightnews.com/2011/05/24/federal-budget-deficit-facts-in-april/
There is a link from this site to the govt. report.
Max
May 24th, 2011
12:28 pm
Yawnplenty…
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/23/tim-pawlenty-wiped-a-serial-child-molesters-record-clean-in-2008/
CantWeGetAlong?
May 24th, 2011
12:29 pm
I find it comical that the pill the government wants us to take to solve the national debt issue are tax increases. Lets pound that one into the ground some more. Lets tax more. Lets take more from the rich. Lets give more to the poor. What is needed are tax cuts. It has been proven time and time again. Reduce taxes on income, on FICA, on capital gains, corporate tax rates, etc you will not see a reduction in receipts coming in. Quite the contrary. You will see a leap in the receipts. This isnt theory. This has happened and proven. The death tax needs to be abolished. For crying out loud, the inheritance has already been been taxed. When it was earned by the one who died. Are we gonna tax that twice? Yeah that seems fair. Capital gains? You want to see a large kick in the pants to this economy? Eliminate the capital gains. You wanna see jobs created? Decrease the corporate tax rate for both small business and big business. It was funny hearing Obama talking about the evil GW Bush tax cuts while he was running. Didnt he extend those very cuts in the last six months. Interesting.
Paulo 977
May 24th, 2011
12:30 pm
Bart Abel
“he didn’t always tell the truth”
Just twisted it to suit his political needs!!
buck@gon
May 24th, 2011
12:32 pm
ByteMe,
“That buzzing sound you hear — and that smell of burning flesh — is Pawlenty stepping on the “Third Rail” of politics and getting fried.”
There’s this new thing out in the country now. It is concerned with spending, sustaining the country economically, and it has already proven that it can help elect nationally-known figures who are willing to make changes to entitlement programs. It’s called the TEA PARTY. You, Jay Bookman, Cynthia Tucker and the NY Times all need to be aware that it exists and that, despite resounding yet spurious charges of whatever —ism you can drum up, the tea party is here to stay and beget the change we need, the change that Prez-O promised.
detritusUSA
May 24th, 2011
12:33 pm
Most Americans will agree to “shared sacrifice”. However, I read nothing about tax increases, or closing the tax loopholes that allow corporations such as GE and Bank of America to pay no taxes. That has to be addressed as well as every “sacred cow” from the defense department to the interest deduction for home owners.
It took every American, past and present, to get us into this situation and it will take every American, present and future, to get us out of it.
Goldie
May 24th, 2011
12:35 pm
Yeah, and I’m ready to hear Ole Tim “tell the truth” about why the GOP continues to support corporate welfare for Big Oil companies at the same time they want to penalize senior citizens and poor people. What’s that all about??? Seems like Big Oil and the Pentagon gets everything they want, and more!
Lil' Barry Bailout
May 24th, 2011
12:49 pm
Mongo: I can add up the cost of two wars, medicare D, and tax cuts galore.
———————–
What has your Idiot Messiah done about any of these? He added a new war, made Medicare part D more generous and expensive, and continued our President Bush’s tax cuts.
Idiot Messiah: Do-nothing on cutting spending.
onpatroll
May 24th, 2011
1:30 pm
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/tim-pawlenty/
we will see.
Linda
May 24th, 2011
1:31 pm
The Democrats dragged the oil companies to Capitol Hill & bashed them over their paying taxes as required by law. The show was spectacular!
The oil & gas industry’s profits are 5.7%, compared to other industries:
21.7% beverage & tobacco
19.4% drugs
17.3% computers, etc.
14.7% chemicals
8.5% manufacturing
The net income tax expenses for the oil & gas industry averaged 41% in ‘09. They pay $80 M per DAY to the fed. govt. in rents. Since ‘00, they have invested almost $1.7 T in US capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.
The Democrats drilled them so that Americans with limited cognitive abilities would think they were being fiscally responsible, gullible Americans that don’t even know the difference between subsidies & tax deductions, easily duped Americans that don’t realize that higher taxes will be passed on to the consumer & ignorant Americans that have no idea that the annual $4 B in tax deductions given to the oil & gas industry happens to EQUAL what we are paying in interest on the debt EVERY DAY.
http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2011/apr/11/saxby-chambliss/senators-ring-alarm-about-4-billion-debt-problem/
Democrats spend 5 days bashing oil companies X $4 B per day = $20 B.
Kyle Wingfield
May 24th, 2011
1:32 pm
fake Peadawg: Congrats, you’re banned from the blog.
LA VERGA
May 24th, 2011
1:54 pm
LIL barry, your messiah bush caused all this crap and your other messiahs in the gop have fought everything your dadi OBAMA has tried to do to fix it.So quit the rightwing toxic nonsense at make sure you vote for the only true messiah…OBAMA 2012….
saywhat?
May 24th, 2011
2:07 pm
CantWeGetAlong, your whole post was a fantasy so far removed from the truth that IT was comical. What you say “has been proven time and time again” , i,e. the idiotic notion that lowering tax rates will increase receipts, has actually been proved FALSE time (during the Reagan years, when tax cuts raised the deficit)and time(during the Clinton years, when tax increases lowered the deficit) and time(during the W years, when tax cuts raised the deficit)again.
Maybe you should stick to posting in blogs that cover subject matter you actually understand.
Linda
May 24th, 2011
2:22 pm
saywhat@2:07, Would you trust John F. Kennedy?
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39517
Say what?
May 24th, 2011
2:54 pm
Mr. Pawlenty scrubbed the record of a convicted child molester so that the molester’s wife could open a day care in their home. The molester subsequently went on to rape his own daughter for year afterwards.
I don’t trust Pawlenty’s judgment. To sat the least.
TruthBe
May 24th, 2011
3:03 pm
Big deal and I won’t vote for this Rhino. Remember he voted in favor of the corrupt democrats cap and trade killing jobs bill.
Jack
May 24th, 2011
3:09 pm
Pawlenty doesn’t impress me. Maybe Jeb will declare: that would impress me.
GT
May 24th, 2011
3:20 pm
We had a president like Pawlenty in Jimmy Carter. The blunt truth is good for newspaper writers and voters where the speaker is not held accountable, asking all the question and not being asked questions, but when it comes to Washington there is no cover for mavericks. Now days the journalist are even sugarcoating it for the audience they serve. Viet Nam would still be going, Watergate never heard of and Henry Grady would be have been picking cotton in the age of hot air. America elects these politicians, it is time they claim them as their own. The problems we face in this country is not government but who they govern. If you bought Enron or went to work for them, you should have known better so lets stop the pity parties. You can’t find a job now because maybe you didn’t desire one then and you were on borrowed time. You are fat because you eat too much, dumb because you never studied in school, and cared less about education. In the land of the free the first person you should look at is yourself when there is a messed up life. The government is not there to have someone to blame your sorriness on. You want to get blunt tell em that, ” you can’t stand the truth” like my man Jack once said.
saywhat?
May 24th, 2011
3:24 pm
Linda, the tax rates in JFKs time were very different(i.e. much much higher) than what they are now.You might as well quote Aristotle in regards to current mental health care practices.It would be about as relevant.
Income taxes are now lower than they have ever been in our nation’s history and have been for 10 years. By your logic and CanWeGetAlong’s logic, we should be facing a huge labor shortage, unable to fill the millions of new jobs created by 10 years of low taxes. We should also have overflowing government coffers with all the higher tax receipts created by these same 10 years of record low income taxes. The plain fact that neither of these two situations exist after 10 years of historically low taxes, should prove to all but the slowest learners that tax cuts don’t create jobs, and don’t increase revenue.
The reality is right there in front of you. Don’t ignore it just because it contradicts what you want to believe. None of this is opinion, or conjecture, just straight forward history. During GWBs term there was a net gain of 0 jobs. Thats right 0% net job creation over 8 years, with the lowest tax rates in history. How does that suggest to you that tax cuts create jobs? What mental gymnastics are needed to reach that conclusion?
Linda
May 24th, 2011
3:58 pm
saywhat@3:24, After the Bush tax cuts in ‘01 & ‘03, unemployment rates went down, until the crisis started in ‘08.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104719.html
What is very apparent is that govt. does not create jobs, massive govt. spending does not create jobs, raising taxes on job creators does not create jobs & massive debt does not create jobs.
It’s also apparent that the American people can spend their money in the economy much more efficiently & effectively that the govt. & it should be the discretion of the American people who should be the winners & losers. There is absolutely no reason to funnel our money thru Washington DC to be used for political pandering. We worked for it. It’s ours to keep, spend &/or invest as we see fit.
Marty
May 24th, 2011
4:37 pm
Notice Pawlenty didn’t mention anything about ending oil subsidies. Pathetic.
Clay Grant
May 24th, 2011
4:49 pm
If Mr. Wingfield is right about the possibility of that Pawlenty is “just in time”, then that also means that the Tea Party’s time will also have come and gone within the next 8 months.
That’s because, above all, “The TP” is about protecting wealth for the wealthy while getting their members in a tizzy about things that barely matter at all (abortion, guns, immigration, whatever), and certainly don’t matter on the economic side.
The chasm of this “disconnect” is a zillion miles wide!
AS IF The TP is really going to accept loss of subsidies or means testing for Medicare!
Dave
May 24th, 2011
4:54 pm
Aquagirl:
“Y’know, I don’t recall any Democratic primary campaigns where accusations of being “too conservative” are flung back and forth”
I do. You might want to check to see which candidates MoveOn.org is attacking for compromising with Republicans before flinging your ignorant hypocritical crap on this site.
Robert
May 24th, 2011
4:55 pm
Pawlenty, another GOP hopeful. I hope he tells the homegrown terrorist group(s) known as the “tea party” (klansmen, skinheads, birthers, etc.) whose weapons of choice are hatred, fear and rage/mob mentality against minorities, women, gays & lesbians and Muslims & Jews to go to hell. It is time for Pawlenty to show real courage and choose what side is he on, the American People or the homegrown terrorist group(s) known as the “tea party”.
Linda
May 24th, 2011
5:30 pm
Marty@4:37, Do you fit into my 1:31 post?
Linda
May 24th, 2011
5:34 pm
Clay@4:49, Can you cite any Tea Party site that proves that the Tea Party has ever taken a stance on social issues or any issues that did not relate to taxing & spending?
Linda
May 24th, 2011
5:37 pm
Robert@4:55, Thank you for reminding me again today of my mother, God rest her soul, & what she taught me when I was 2. Wish you had been so fortunate.
saywhat?
May 24th, 2011
5:40 pm
Linda: *** “What is very apparent is that govt. does not create jobs, massive govt. spending does not create jobs, raising taxes on job creators does not create jobs & massive debt does not create jobs.”***
None of this is apparent at all, unless you are looking through some wacky ideological lens filter. Massive government spending DOES create jobs. Have you ever heard of “the defense industry” as one of many easy to find examples? How many auto companies, gasoline and related jobs would there be if government hadn’t contructed roads? As for raising taxes and massive debt, please show me where I or anybody else ever claimed they DID create jobs. Raising taxes however DOES raise revenues which DOES help decrease the massive debt (again, see the Clinton years).
***”It’s also apparent that the American people can spend their money in the economy much more efficiently & effectively that the govt. & it should be the discretion of the American people who should be the winners & losers. There is absolutely no reason to funnel our money thru Washington DC to be used for political pandering. We worked for it. It’s ours to keep, spend &/or invest as we see fit.”***
As a Red State resident, you do know the “political pandering” is currently acting to your personal benefit, don’t you? Its all those horrid “liberals” in Blue States who are propping up Georgia’s economy with their tax money. As for the American people “picking winners and losers” perhaps you are unaware that we have a representative form of government, and that we “pick and choose” at the ballot box. When our representatives tax us, set policy, etc, they are doing so at our behest (or at least at the behest of the largest corporations, who are, after all, “people” with “free speech rights” per the Supreme Court).
Linda
May 24th, 2011
6:22 pm
saywhat@5:40, If I’m “wacky,” why do you waste your time addressing me? Don’t try to insult me & at the same time engage me.
The fed. govt. has govt. jobs but it does not create the vast majority of private sector jobs. You’re painting a picture of trickle down economics from the govt. It’s not the answer to the problem.
The govt. doesn’t need more revenue. It is not worthy of more revenue. It’s a failure. It’s credit card is maxed out. It needs to go into rehab. Congress needs straight jackets & hearing aids. The spending spree is over. It’s time to cut the size of the fed. govt. in half. When a tree falls on your house, you don’t begin to repair the problem by painting the ceiling.
We not only pick winners & losers at the ballot box, we pick them with our purchases. These are both the American way. This is the free market, capitalism.
Clay Grant
May 24th, 2011
6:27 pm
Linda @ 5:34: Well, if there’s one group of folks who are for just about the economy and a separate group that are about the “junk”, then you’ve got more than enough people to win the election no matter who is running. The numbers don’t work for this to be true. Do you really expect me to believe that these are not the very same people?
Linda
May 24th, 2011
6:57 pm
Clay@6:27, Surf the web. There are many Tea Party groups. There are mission statements all over the web. I have been unable to find any evidence that any of the groups have social issues. They appeared right after Obama & the Democrats passed their economic stimulus bill in 2/09 as a ragtag group of grassroots normal American voters & taxpayers who knew then what we all know now.
I am a member of one such group. I can tell you from personal experience that we have a growing number of independents & Democrats who are just as concerned about the borrowing & spending & the future for the next generation as Republicans. The only people who are NOT members of the Tea Party are liberals/progressives.
independent thinker
May 24th, 2011
8:17 pm
Ms. Linda – tell me how you propose to cut the bloated military budget. Please explain why we have over 700 overseas bases and keep spending hundreds of billions on obsolete weapons like aircraft carrier groups that can be wiped out with Chinese missles? Or tell me why we continue to spend billions on farm subsidies paying people like your hero Michelle Bachman and her husband $250,000 for their “family farm” or why does the government keep spending money on trolley cars and highways that are unnecessary but perks of congress persons on both sides????????????????????
Linda
May 24th, 2011
9:27 pm
independent@8:17, Are you aware that almost 20% of our defense budget is to defend the Persian Gulf? If Obama would allow us to use our our natural resources, we could cut military spending by that amt. What Obama says & what he does as far as using our own natural resources are not one in the same.
We are at a point when all subsidies need to cease. Are you aware that we give foreign aid to every country in the world except for 3?
We need the leader of the free world to lead.
Intown
May 25th, 2011
12:26 pm
Pawlenty may be bold. But, he’s also got a losing strategy.