Pawlenty proposes deep tax cuts, ending mail delivery and mortgage help

[MinneapolisMatt]

In the first major economic speech of his presidential campaign Tuesday, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposed dramatic cuts in corporate and individual tax rates, along with deep spending cuts that would end the federal government’s role in delivering mail, running trains and backing home mortgages.

Speaking at the University of Chicago business school, Pawlenty delivered a sweeping plan for shrinking government, encapsulated in what he called the “‘Google Test.’ If you can find a good or service on the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn’t need to be doing it.”

As he seeks the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, Pawlenty would cut the corporate business tax rate by more than half, from 35 percent to 15 percent. Individual rates would be simplified to two tiers: 10 percent on income up to $50,000 ($100,000 for married couples), and 25 percent for “everything above that.”

-snip-

Pawlenty, as he often does, said he cut spending in real terms in Minnesota for the first time in the state history, suffering a government shutdown and a public union strike. “We didn’t close our schools, or empty out our prisons” he said. “We cut spending where it needed to be cut. We can do the same thing in Washington.” He did not mention the details of budget shifts, federal stimulus spending, and K-12 school funds borrowing that Democrats say helped him keep state budgets in technical balance.

-snip-

Under Pawlenty’s Google Test, he offered a list of government services that could be privatized: “The post office, the government printing office, Amtrak, Fannie and Freddie, were all built for a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products. That’s no longer the case.”

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http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/123358498.html

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[MinneapolisMatt]

1. He was the worst governor we ever had.

Put us 5 billion in debt.

:puke:

[NightWatcher]

2. why dont these people just move to Somalia? it is their dream place. No govt, no taxes...

[LiberalAndProud]

3. I am so ready to let the government shrinkers live in the society they would create.

Unfortunately, the rest of us have to live there too. Really, it would be justice to give them what they want if we could just figure out how to protect the rest of us.

[damntexdem]

7. Yeah, but the problem is that one of these shitheads would then have his or her ...

finger on the nuclear button.

[LiberalAndProud]

10. Yea, well their policies would have much the same affect over time.

Once they get done deregulating and defunding, there won't be much left over to nuke.

[Rex]

4. So how does Shitstain Pawlenty stack up against a Rick Perry?

I hear 'worst' being thrown around...care to compare?

[MinneapolisMatt]

5. Well

the most obvious is neglecting our infrastructure by appointing his lieutenant governor to oversee MnDOT (MN dept of transportation), slashing funds for repairs and then we had a major bridge collapse killing people.

He said he never raised taxes, instead he called them "fees" when he raised taxes on non-rich people and essentials.

He's duplicitous, and a bald-face liar.

[trotsky]

6. "He's duplicitous, and a bald-face liar."

And that's about the nicest thing that can be said about him. Arrogant smarmy prick is what comes to my mind.

[Lucian]

8. So, if the post office were privatized...

and you don't pay your bill, you don't get your mail?

Absolute BS. He's just as looney as Ron and Rand Paul with his "little government" nonsense.

[dtotire]

9. The "Reforms" He is Proposing

That's what got us into the mess we are in today.