Tim Pawlenty's fiscal talk and Minnesota's reality don't always match up

[TomCADem]

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Minneapolis and Washington— In every speech Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty gives these days, he touts his fiscal record during his eight years as governor of Minnesota. "I drew a line in the sand," he likes to say, bragging that he vetoed every tax increase and demanded that state government officials "live within our means just like families, just like businesses, just like everybody else."

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But to do that, he relied on money from the federal stimulus — a program he has decried as wasteful — and other one-time fixes. He postponed school and other obligations, leading to hikes in local property taxes and strains on school districts as burdens shifted downward.

Most strikingly, he left the state with a $5-billion projected deficit, one of the highest in the nation as a percentage of the state's general fund, only slightly trailing California's massive gap.

Pawlenty blames the deficit on Democrats in the Legislature who he said ignored his requests for permanent budget trims and insisted on continued spending. But Pawlenty's critics fault him for what one called "sleight-of-hand budgeting" and a failure to work with a Democratic-controlled Legislature before he left office in 2011.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pawlenty-fiscal-20110403,0,1268316.story

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Blame the Democrats. Give Republicans a free pass. The only thing that is amazing is that an article in a major newspaper calls him out on his gimmickry.

[shraby]

1. It was under his watch that a major bridge collapsed because

he didn't want to spend the money to fix it first.

[Bozita]

6. When I see his name, that's the image that flashes through my mind.

[truthisfreedom]

2. The 'thugs are just using Pawlenty to sling a lot of shit and see if anything sticks.

They know he hasn't got a worker's chance in Fukushimi of making it to the Oval Office.

[truthisfreedom]

3. dupe

[Enthusiast]

4. Good piece.

Pawlenty is no different than the rest of the Republican crew. Liars, one and all.

[Zoeisright]

5. That slimy little cross-eyed weasel is a fucking liar and a cheat.

And he's a murderer. I'll never forget his face after the 35W bridge collapsed. It was total fear and terror, because he KNEW he had caused it with his negligence.

[Thor_MN]

7. He has gotten better at supressing his blink rate when he is lying

But I still call him Balinky. He is totally full of shit and Minnesota is currently paying the price for his mismanagement.