The Pen of Pawlenty: A Beacon for Conservatives
By Johnny Roosh
Governor Pawlenty’s discipline is tutelage for Republicans everywhere.
Congressional Republicans — the ones who got tossed because of their embrace of spending and earmarks — might start looking for a message up north. Fiscal responsibility? “It is the fundamental tenet of our party, and the conservative coalition more broadly,” says Mr. Pawlenty, nicely. “If we don’t have that, we are nothing.”
If Republicans are looking to get back their conservative groove, they could do worse than study Minnesota’s budget brawl. Mr. Pawlenty deftly (and amusingly) outmaneuvered his Democratic opposition, not only saving his state from huge tax increases but clearing the way to cut government spending. Call it a refreshing break from the financial-crisis norm.
While liberal TV ads equate fairness with sticking it to the “rich”…
…Mr. Pawlenty kept voicing three simple principles. “Number one, we must have [because of the constitution] and should have a balanced budget,” he told me. “Number two, the state government needs to live within its means, just like everybody else. Number three, we shouldn’t raise taxes in the worst recession in 60 years.” Minnesota already has one of the highest tax burdens in the nation.
While in Washington, Comrade Obama increases the Federal Government and National Debt at unprecedented speed…
this will be one of the first times in modern Minnesota history that the state will reduce the size of government in real terms, not just slow its rate of growth. “The correlation in recent history has been between job growth and states that have reasonable government cost structures,” he says. These cuts, he says, will position Minnesota to take advantage of the recovery when it comes.
A Crisis Not Wasted™ indeed, Governor.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:42 am
But…what about the children?
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 am
Hopefully Palenty will use this golden opportunity to dismantle Minnesota’s”welfare magnet” that attracts welfare recipients to Minnesota from all over the US and all over the world. Minnesota might have been able to help own own in genuine need if the social services “powers that be” didn’t fastrack all services for the “new arrivals” to our state.
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
dismantle Minnesota’s”welfare magnet”that attracts welfare recipients to Minnesota from all over the US and all over the world.
Racist! Hater!
You are a bad person, Soliah.
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
Not racist. It’s a statistical fact that the majority of welfare recipients are white.
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:04 am
Kermit, haven’t you learned that ‘welfare recipient’ is double-super-secret racist conservative code for ‘brown people’? Even out in the gawd-forsaken hinterlands of Minnesota you must have run across an occasional Paul Krugman column. He imparts that information in nearly every column he writes. Sometimes more than once.
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I’m sorry. I tend to be over dependent on things like logic and statistical probability. Paul Krugman? Not so much.
May 24th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I don’t know why you worry about people coming here for welfare benefits, Heck, it appears that many of them don’t even bother to come here, using their MN welfare ATM cards in all 50 states! The DFL won’t even look into the seemingly illogical “caring for Minnesota’s poor” that don’t even live in Minnesota.