Pawlenty sounds like a candidate for 2012

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen

By Ralph Z. Hallow

"It's a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff blush," he said.

In naming his proudest achievement in office, Mr. Pawlenty turned to the most unifying theme for the modern conservative movement that forms the philosophical base of the Republican party: controlling spending both for economic stability and limiting government to protect individual freedoms.

"Since 1960 till I became governor in 2003, the average biennial state budget increase had been 19 percent," he said. "It's been 2 percent since I became governor."

Also, in Minnesota's 150-year history, through the recessions and depression, there was never any two-year budget cycle in which spending went down, until he became governor, he said, adding: "We actually cut spending for the two-year cycle we are in now."

On the most divisive domestic issue of Mr. Obama's first year in office, Mr. Pawlenty told The Times he would want other governors to join in raising objections based on the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution if the Democrat-led Congress enacts a sweeping health-care measure that forces mandates on the states — such as requiring every adult in the country to buy health insurance.

The amendment says the powers not specifically delegated to the federal government under the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are "reserved" to the states or the people.

"It is important to raise the issue — not through lawsuits or threats to secede — but because doing so makes a philosophical statement and political statement for policymakers to take seriously," he said. "The federal government shouldn't boss us around as states. It's another example of federal government's encroachment on markets and individual freedoms."

He said he is "not aware of any other instance where the federal government has required an individual to purchase a good and service."

As for illegal immigration, Mr. Pawlenty is against blanket amnesty as well as blanket deportation.

"One of the founding principles of this country is the rule of law, so we can't have a large segment of the population flouting or violating the law and others large segment nodding and winking," he said. "It corrodes respect for the law."

He advocated the tightest possible border security enhanced by an electronic Social Security verification system so employers don't unknowingly hire illegal immigrants. Deportation should depend on factors such as how long the illegal has been in the country.

Some in his party think Mr. Pawlenty may be more of a statistic than a statesman and more free-lunch than free-market in his governance.

"He broke his no-new taxes pledge by supporting cigarette-tax increases," Club for Growth Vice President Sandy Roth said. "He signed a raise in the state minimum wage. He signed a statewide smoking ban. He supports government-negotiated price controls on Medicare, he supports government-negotiated prices for Medicare and he supports the state children's health care plan … that the Democrats liberalized so that families making three times more than the poverty line can qualify."

"You put all of these liberal actions together, and he is not the true believer that the conservative base is looking for," said Mr. Roth, whose organization raises and spends money on behalf of free-market, limited-government conservatives.