Disecting Pawlenty's plan

Tim Pawlenty has come out with his budget plan. I wanted to take the time and walk you through it, hopefully explaining where he goes wrong.

"Between 1983 and 1987 --- the Reagan recovery grew at 4.9%. Between 1996 and 1999 ---- under President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress. The economy grew at more than 4.7%. In each case millions of new jobs were created --- incomes rose --- and unemployment fell to historic lows. The same can happen again. "

This statement does not take into account the fact that both Regan and Clinton raised taxes. There can be no real growth without revenue.

"American businesses today pay the second highest tax rates in the world. That's a recipe for failure --- not adding jobs and economic growth. We should cut the business tax rate by more than half. I propose reducing the current rate from 35% to 15%. "

All of the countries that are part of the EU had to agree to strict tax cuts for businesses. This led to economic failure. It would be wise to make sure that companies actually paid their taxes before giving them yet another tax break.

"A balanced federal budget shouldn't be a political sound bite. It should be the law of the land."

this is downright ridiculous. The federal government cannot balance it's budget every year. Add on your new policies, and it becomes even harder. How can we balance a budget if we are cutting revenue from all revenue sources?

"For example --- I've proposed capping and block-granting Medicaid to the states"

By sending each state money for Medicaid you ensure that disabled adults have no access to care. By capping the amount you send, you ensure that families and individuals who fall on hard times cannot get access to health care.

"There's some obvious targets. We can start by applying what I call "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. "

This has to be the most ridiculous statement I have ever read.
Here are his examples of things we should not do any more.
"The post office --- the government printing office --- Amtrak --- Fannie and Freddie were all built for a different time in our country. When the private sector did not adequately provide those services. That's no longer the case."

Let me take these one at a time.
1. The post office. Though it is true that companies like Fed ex and others allow you to send packages, they do not have access to mail boxes. If we gave these private companies access to mail boxes, people in rural areas would lose mail service. It is simply not worth it to a private company to send trucks out to rural areas. The cost they would have to pass on to the customer would be so much that people in rural areas would not be able to afford it.
2. The government printing office. If we sent all government printing to a private firm, that would be the only account they could have. Thus creating the same thing we have now.
3. Amtrak. Without light rail Amtrak is the only passenger train. Greyhound buses are not wheelchair accessible so millions of passengers would not be allowed to travel.
4. Fannie, and Freddie. Pawlenty is simply wrong when he says that a person can get an affordable guaranteed loan from a private lender.

The private sector cannot and does not provide these services.