Tim Pawlenty: “A Better Deal” and the Google Test

How’s that for a riveting campaign slogan? Tim Pawlenty’s “Better Deal” consists of eliminating the estate tax and all taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends; and lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%. Even better, all government safety/environmental regulations will be automatically “sunsetted” unless Congress votes to renew them.

With these crippling taxes and cumbersome regulations no longer strangling the economy, hardworking Americans will once again be free “to innovate, invest, compete, and create new businesses and jobs.”

This has a sort of eerie familiarity — probably because it’s the same bill of goods Republicans have been selling us since 1980. But hey, let’s keep doing the same thing over and over and over, and maybe this time we’ll get a different result.

And don’t worry about where future revenues will come from after Pawlenty has eliminated everybody’s taxes (except for people who work for a living). He’s got it covered: 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. The post office, the government printing office, Amtrak, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were all built in a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products. That’s no longer the case.”

Isn’t this great?!?!? The Google Test also means we overburdened taxpayers will no longer need to pay for the military and the weapons they use; law enforcement; fire departments, road construction…

We’re Free!!!

And Texas Governor Rick Perry has his own variation: “Don’t use the Google; ask Jesus.”

On August 6th Rick Perry will be holding a “Day of Prayer and Fasting for our Nation to seek God's guidance.” This sacred event will be held at Reliant Stadium in Houston, and all governors are invited.

On his website, Perry says “Americans must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles because some problems are beyond our power to solve.”