While Tim Pawlenty impressed me in the early going by having the cojones to show up in Des Moines and call for an end to farm subsidies and as an encore, go to Florida and tell a bunch of senior citizens that the retirement age needs to be raised, his latest policy speech contains a few nuggets that make me a bit queasy. First, there's the deep tax cuts- that should be expected, as the man is a Republican after all- but his 'Google Test' thing? Hmmmmm... not sure if I like still more surrenders to creeping corporatism that seems to be infecting the government, but I'll go with it.
Basically T-Paw is saying that if you can find a company (via Google) that will provide any given service, the Federal Government should NOT be providing said service. Post Office? See ya. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Totally done-sies. We could probably do this all day- but the concept is simultaneously disturbing and interesting to me, because the man does sort of, kind of maybe, have a little bit of a point. The Post Office is essentially doomed in its current form anyway- when Britain has already partially privatized the Royal Mail and with no coherent strategy on how to deal with the big, ugly rise of email, it's bleeding red ink. Selling it off or partially privatizing it would be something I'd be OK with. If T-Paw wants to abolish Amtrak, I'd be hip to that as it's useless anyway...
But as for everything else, again, I'm not so sure. What is it about Republicans that they insist that the government made of the people, by the people and for the people is so completely corrupt and depraved that we should scrap all checks on business and hand over most government services to private corporations? Should I trust private corporations? Do I get a vote on their board of directors? What's to stop them from screwing me over in the name of making money- because that, at the end of the day is what businesses do. I tend to think we should strip out loopholes for everyone, make taxes low for everyone and keep regulation as simple as possible for everyone. But apparently, if you don't pass T-Paw's 'Google Test' then the corporate sharks can have you for lunch...
(Another interesting point raised by current Medium White North Governor Mark Dayton: given the MWN's massive budget deficit, courtesy of T-Paw, do we really think he should be trusted with the fiscal keys to the car?)
SIDEBAR #1: Sarah Palin said something about Paul Revere. Everybody laughed at her until the historians out there checked the facts and found out that she had been, in fact, correct. Oooops! She might actually have a brain between her ears... that can't be good for Progressive America. (BTW: is it too late to have the media stop with the sexism? This is going to be a long campaign and if she runs, it'd be nice to focus on her policy positions and not her boobs.)
SIDEBAR #2: Jon Huntsman, Republican no-hoper candidate for President (yes, he had a nice, boner-inducing record that Republicans LOVE as Governor of Utah, but then he went and WORKED FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA! How easy is that campaign going to be?) decided he was going to skip Iowa because of his position on ethanol subsidies. (He is not in favor of them.) Seriously, dude? You don't even have the balls to come to my state and tell me something I don't want to hear? How are you going to be President? Are you just going to go on long trips abroad when you've got bad news you don't want to tell the American people? Huntsman, I dub thee coward and weakling! Grow a set and come to Iowa! We're nice people!
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