Jennifer Horn: It's Time For Tim Pawlenty
Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 05:11PM
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Copyright 2011 Jennifer Horn - All Rights Reserved.
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Entries in Gov Pawlenty (5)
Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 05:11PM Freedom First PAC - Pawlenty: "Government is too damn big"
Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 07:48AM
I’m here today to say “thank you.” Thank you for standing up to the “ruling class.” Thank you for standing up to the liberal power brokers, guardians of the status quo, and the royal triangle of greed: big government, big unions and big bailed out businesses.
Thank you for being modern day Paul Revere’s – rallying Patriots to the cause of this great nation. The promising work of Governors Walker, Kasich, Christie, and so many others is the direct result of the dedicated Patriots in this room and across the country who had enough, stood up, fought back, and are restoring this country’s foundation.
Our Founders put it in terms so simple even a politician should be able to understand: They started with a most important principle: They didn’t say we’re endowed by our member of Congress or we’re endowed by our bureaucrat.
They said we’re endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights -- and that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. And what government did our Founders institute and our Fathers ratify? The one that begins, “We the people…”
The message of the Tea Party, as I see it, is simple. God made us to be free, and the Founding Fathers made the Constitution to keep us free. And just about every problem our country faces today comes from a rejection of one of those two principles. And every solution we need today will come from a return to those core principles. The Constitution was not written to limit freedom, it was written to limit government.
It appears President Obama has forgotten what this says. It says in the Constitution: “In order to form a more perfect Union….” Mr. President, that does not mean coddling out of control public employee unions. And Mr. President, Wisconsin does not need a lecture from somebody who’s never balanced a budget in his life.
Speaking of Wisconsin, will you join me in applauding Governor Walker for standing strong against overreaching unions?
Now, I’m not one who questions the existence of the President’s birth certificate. But, when you listen to his policies, don’t you at least wonder what planet he’s from? We don’t share President Obama’s worldview.
We don’t want a bigger government shoving mandates down our throats. He’s got it completely backwards. They, the bureaucrats, don’t tell us what to do. We, the people, tell the government what to do!
My friends, we need to restore American confidence and American optimism by restoring American common sense. As Washington proves time and time again, not everyone’s born or elected with common sense.
We need leaders who remember where they came from, and what made this nation the greatest country the world has ever known. For me, that real world experience started in my hometown of South St. Paul, Minnesota – a place filled with good-hearted people, strong families and the rock-solid values of the heartland.
When I grew up there, it was home to some of the world's largest stockyards and meat-packing plants. But when those plants shut down, so did a big part of the spirit and soul of my hometown. My mom died when I was 16 and later, my dad, who worked for a trucking company, lost his job for a while.
The foundations of my hometown and my family were shaken hard. At a young age, I saw up close the face of challenge, the face of hardship, the face of job loss -- and I saw in the mirror -- the face of a very uncertain future. I know many Americans are feeling that way today. I know that feeling. I lived it.
But in those moments, we learn some things. We remember what’s important.
We simply need more common sense, and less Obama non-sense. And let’s start with this: It’s complex -- and I know there may be some liberals watching this -- so I’ll say it slowly so they can follow along: We can’t spend more than we take in.
You can't do it as an individual, a family or a business. And we can’t let our government do it anymore! Just because we followed Greece into democracy, does not mean we should follow them into bankruptcy!
Big government spenders come with excuses. They say, "Oh, Governor, how do you do that? It's too hard. The politics are difficult and the unions are too tough”.
I know something about the spenders -- and I know something about difficult. I'm from the state of United States Senator Al Franken.
But we cut government in Minnesota. If we can do it there, we can do it anywhere. It wasn’t easy. I set a record for vetoes. Had the first government shutdown in Minnesota’s history. Took one of the longest transit strikes in the country’s history to get public employee benefits under control. And, I cut spending in real terms for the first time in the history of my state.
My friends, it’s time for the federal government to do the same. We should not raise the debt ceiling! We should pass a constitutional amendment to balance the budget! We should appoint judges who will not legislate from the bench. We must repeal Obamacare! And we must throw the ridiculous federal tax code overboard!
And let’s require, under penalty of perjury, every member of Congress to do their own tax returns without the help of a tax preparer, accountant or lawyer. Let them experience firsthand the mind-numbing, burdensome, frightening beast our tax system has become.
Do you remember the guy who ran in the NYC mayor's race who ran his entire campaign on a simple motto: He said over and over: "The rent is too damn high". So here’s our simple motto: "The Government’s too damn big!"
Americans need jobs, not more government-forced anything. The private sector, not government, is the answer to job creation. We shouldn’t ask Washington D.C. how to create jobs. We should ask the people who actually provide the jobs!
Their answer is clear and simple and it’s this: “Reduce my costs and get government off my back” Ladies and gentlemen, America needs job growth, not government growth!
My friends, none of this is going to be easy. If prosperity were easy, everybody around the world would be prosperous. If security were easy, everybody around the world would be secure. And if freedom were easy, everybody around the world would be free. They’re not.
It takes extraordinary effort. It takes extraordinary commitment. It takes extraordinary strength to stand up to those who oppose these principles. But we can do it.
Valley Forge wasn't easy. Settling the West wasn't easy. Winning World War II wasn’t easy. And Going to the moon wasn’t easy. This ain't about easy. This is about rolling up our sleeves, plowing forward, and getting the job done.
This is our guide. This is our Constitution. "We, the People of the United States" will rise up again. We will take back our government. This is our country.
Our Founding Fathers created it, Americans embraced it, Ronald Reagan personified it and Lincoln stood courageously to protect it. Now, as ever, "This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom....” Our “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth….” and America will remain the greatest country the world has ever known.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America!
T-Paw Op-Ed: "Repealing ObamaCare, State by State"
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 09:01AM Repealing Obamacare, state by state
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2010
After a historic election reflecting six in ten voters wanting to repeal Obamacare, the question now facing conservatives is how.
As long as President Barack Obama holds his veto pen, undoing this misguided piece of legislation will not be easy. But we can make progress. While Congress takes important steps toward eventual repeal, governors can use their authority to stop or delay implementation of Obamacare. It must be fought not only in Washington but in state capitols.
In Minnesota, I issued an executive order directing state agencies to reject participation in Obamacare unless required by law or consistent with existing state policy. I also joined the federal lawsuit that challenges Obamacare’s individual mandate and invokes the 10th Amendment in defense of states’ rights and a proper view of federalism. Newly elected Republican governors should consider taking similar actions.
Fighting Obamacare, however, is not enough. Merely restoring the status quo of skyrocketing costs, narrowing access, and structural dysfunction would be a mistake. Our health care system needs to be more effective and affordable. Reforms should feature timeless conservative principles applied to the challenges and opportunities of our time.
The great tragedy of Obamacare is not only that we know it will fail, but that we have not implemented health care reforms that we know will succeed.
In recent years, Minnesotans have embraced innovative, conservative health care reform. We focused on improving quality and containing cost, not just expanded access. We made it easier for consumers to use HSA plans (Minnesota is second in the nation on HSAs). We provided online cost and quality information for the 100 most common health services. We passed tort reform to curb frivolous lawsuits. And we engaged the private sector as a partner, not as an opponent.
Today, Minnesotans enjoy one of the finest health care systems in the country. We continue to have some of the healthiest people in the nation and one of the lowest rates of uninsured. We have learned through trial and error what works, and we know what doesn’t.
We know that we need to give people more power over the use of their health care dollars and decisions. Today, six of every seven health care dollars is spent by someone other than the person receiving the care. Health care today is like an open bar. When someone else is paying the bill, people behave differently. For decades, this open bar approach has encouraged wasteful spending by individuals and providers rather than a sober assessment of costs and benefits. But our struggling economy and deficit-ridden budgets are flashing warning lights that closing time is near.
Obamacare was a missed opportunity to fix this systemic problem and the new law only made matters worse by taking control away from people. In fact, the new law allows the government to eventually control over half of all health care spending. True reform must turn our government-run system right side up, giving patients control over their health care dollars and decisions, while subjecting providers and insurers to the competitive forces of a real market.
Giving Americans more choice, ownership and responsibility will bring about greater efficiency and lower costs. Making this shift from the government to purchasers will not happen overnight, but here are some ideas for Congress to get us moving in the right direction.
Congress should change the tax code to end the bias against people who purchase their own health insurance. People who buy insurance through their employer get a tax break on the value of the benefits. Individual and group purchasers should be treated the same.
Congress should allow individuals to shop across state lines for health insurance. Doing so would dramatically increase insurance choices and cut costs through better competition.
Most importantly, Congress should back off and give the states latitude. If states can demonstrate a better way to reach policy goals, Congress should permit states to do what works best. A one-size-fits-all approach has not and will never work in a country as diverse as ours. This is what federalism is all about.
Obamacare is one of the most misguided pieces of legislation in the modern history of our country. A 2,000-page, trillion-dollar, politically driven takeover of one-sixth of our economy, Obamacare is both too complicated to succeed and too broken to repair. Voters this year sent a strong message that they want it stopped. The newly elected Republican governors gathering in San Diego this week have an opportunity to do just that.
Pawlenty is in his second term as governor of Minnesota. He is vice chair of the Republican Governors Association, which is meeting this week in San Diego
Gov Pawlenty, Obamacare, State Soveignty Tim Pawlenty: America Wants School Reform (NRO)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 11:01AM http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245742/america-wants-school-reform-tim-pawlenty?page=1
Tim Pawlenty: America Wants School Reform
American schoolchildren do very badly on international comparisons. It’s not their fault.
The great tragedy of American education is not that the system fails so many children, but that we know why and yet do very little about it.
The statistics still shock, but they no longer surprise.
The United States today spends more money on education per pupil ($11,000) than almost any other country, and yet it routinely finishes near the bottom of international math, science, and literacy surveys. On average, our fourth-graders do pretty well, but by the time those children get to eighth grade they begin to slide, and by twelfth grade they can no longer keep up with many of their peers in other countries.
The situation for our minority students is even worse. According to a recent study, black and Latino students trail white students of the same age by the equivalent of two to three years of learning. And according to the Wall Street Journal, 10 percent of America’s high schools produce 50 percent of America’s dropouts, and African-American children have a 50-50 chance of attending one of them.
My state of Minnesota tells the story. We boast the nation’s highest ACT scores, and at least 70 percent of Minnesota kids graduate from high school. Sounds pretty good, right? But if you look deeper into the statistics, it turns out that fewer than half of Minnesota’s minority students graduate from high school. That pattern repeats itself across the nation.
And yet for decades, a cartel of teachers’ unions, bureaucrats, and politicians has stood in the way of innovation, reform, and results.
In Minnesota, we’ve made more progress than most. My administration created the nation’s first statewide performance-pay program, linking teacher compensation to classroom and student achievement rather than just seniority. We imposed rigorous math and science graduation standards. We established school report cards, so parents could follow the performance of their children’s schools.
We wanted to do so much more, and could have. But the teachers’ unions blocked us at every turn.
In eight years, the only major piece of my education agenda the unions supported was an $800 million increase in K–12 spending in the 2005–06 budget; nearly every other reform was rejected. For all their rhetoric about “the children,” when push comes to shove, what the teachers’ unions really want is raises, every year, for jobs they can never lose at schools that need never compete.
That entitlement mentality just won’t cut it any more. America’s education cartel is an indulgence we can no longer afford, either as citizens paying taxes to dysfunctional governments or as competitors in a global economic market.
That’s why the tide may finally be turning. Strapped by the recession and appalled by the status quo, the forces of reform are standing up to the schoolyard bullies in the education cartel, and winning. Teachers’ unions want money, and more of it. But the rest of America wants better education, and teachers’ unions are in the way.
In Florida, the state legislature finally passed landmark education reforms first championed by Gov. Jeb Bush; unfortunately, Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the legislation. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie fought to bring spiraling education costs under control, and he won voters’ support. In liberal cities like Washington, D.C., and New York City, schools chiefs have fired teachers who can’t teach and embraced charter schools.
Even President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are encouraging reform. Yes, the president killed school choice for poor kids in Washington, D.C., and he recently bailed out teachers’ unions with $31 billion we don’t have. But to the administration’s credit, Obama and Duncan have stuck to their guns on their Race to the Top initiative, which at least ties federal education dollars to structural changes in state education policies.
Private or religious schools should be an option for all Americans, not just the privileged few. Public schools should be forced to compete in a field where they will be judged by who has the best teachers and the best outcomes. Schools, districts, and states should embrace market-based reforms that reward good teachers and principals, while removing bad ones. And alternative formats like home schooling, vocational apprenticeships, and online learning should be supported and further integrated into our public systems.
At the federal level, we should create “charter states,” freeing states from the regulations tied to federal education dollars in exchange for transparency and, most important, results.
As schoolchildren return to class across the country this week, the forces for reform are closer than ever to guaranteeing every child a high-quality education. The era of education policy written for and by teachers’ unions is drawing to a close.
— Tim Pawlenty is finishing his second term as governor of Minnesota.
Ponzi on the Potomac
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 08:17AM By Gov. Tim Pawlenty
February 1, 2010
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32282.html
The U.S. attorney general recently announced that the Justice Department is beefing up its efforts to fight financial fraud such as Ponzi schemes. Good. The agency should start by reviewing the spending habits of the federal government, which is running the largest Ponzi scheme our country has ever seen.
In a Ponzi scheme, organizers create the illusion of profit for early investors by siphoning money from later participants. It works until there is not enough income to pay the promised dividends, exposing the fraud and leaving everyone broke. That is essentially what the federal government is doing, as it continues to spend and promise far more than can ever be paid for by current and future revenues.
Last week, the U.S. Senate increased the nation’s debt ceiling by an additional $1.9 trillion. That vote was necessary to further the Ponzi scheme. It should serve as a wake-up call that this level of spending is unsustainable.
The debate is no longer between competing political philosophies — it is a matter of basic mathematics. Here is a sampling of the facts:
• Federal government spending has grown nearly seven times faster than median income since 1970, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and Office of Management and Budget.
• At more than $12 trillion, the federal debt is already more than 80 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and growing fast.
• The federal government’s total debt, including unfunded liabilities, means about $600,000 of debt for every U.S. household.
Sooner or later, the federal government’s scheme will come crashing down, and the loss will be mammoth.
But it doesn’t have to end that way. If our country takes bold and decisive action soon, the worst effects can still be avoided.
We should start with the obvious. When the bathtub is overflowing, a wise first response is to turn off the faucet. The federal government’s spending-increase spigot needs to be shut off.
This will require a national understanding and acceptance of the problem: We need to admit our addiction to the illusion of government “free stuff” and demand that spending be cut in almost all areas.
This will not be easy. In recent decades, the national debt has grown regardless of which party is in power because too many politicians seek support by spending more, even though a sound economic future demands they spend less.
That’s why we need an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget with limited exceptions for war, natural disasters and other emergencies. Every state but one has a balanced budget requirement, and while such requirements make for difficult decisions, they work.
The president also should be given line-item veto authority power as a budget enforcement tool. The experience of the states shows that this is an effective way of preventing excessive spending.
Spending reduction tools alone will not meet this challenge. We must also grow the economy. To that end, Congress should reject federal legislation that places additional burdens on growth, such as the proposed health care overhaul, cap-and-trade bill, labor union card check and tax increases.
Instead, lawmakers should support policies that promote economic growth. For example, the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent and tax burdens on individuals and businesses should be further reduced. To better compete overseas, Congress should finally pass the pending free-trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia, and re-enact trade promotion authority. And we should pass health care reforms that would empower consumers to make smarter medical choices and lead to more competition and lower costs.
Like most other states, Minnesota still faces its share of economic challenges. However, during my two terms as governor, we have dramatically slowed the growth of state government spending and moved the state out of the Top 10 in tax burden. In the current budget biennium, we actually reduced overall spending for the first time in the state’s 150-year history. It has not been easy in a liberal state such as Minnesota, especially during challenging economic times. But it’s possible with a balanced budget requirement, line-item veto authority, pro-growth policies and a lot of hard work and determination.
Ponzi schemes succeed because people want to believe in a free lunch as long as the easy money is rolling in. But a day of reckoning always arrives, and ours is right around the corner. The sooner we open our eyes, the sooner we can clean up this mess.
Tim Pawlenty is Republican governor of Minnesota.