Despite His Stimulus Bashing, Almost A Third Of Pawlenty’s Budget Relies On Stimulus Money
In December, Fox News’ Eric Bolling presented Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as an example of a conservative politician making tough choices to balance his state’s budget. “A big hole and a simple plan to dig out of it, stop spending,” said Bolling while introducing Pawlenty. “Sounds simple enough. Hold the line on taxes, live within your means. That is how my next guest aims to close his state`s billion-dollar-plus projected budget gap.”
During the interview, Bolling asked Pawlenty about whether he would seek federal stimulus funds to help close his budget gaps. Pawlenty criticzied the idea, claiming that it would “delay the inevitable” by “just sending some cash out as a Band-Aid“:
....Yesterday, Pawlenty revealed his proposal to balance Minnesota’s budget. The proposal would cut “$250 million from aid to cities and counties and $347 million from health and human services programs” while lowering taxes for businesses. The Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that “nearly one-third of the governor’s budget fix would rely on $387 million in federal stimulus money. That money isn’t yet in the bank and, if it doesn’t come through, the cuts could be far deeper.”
This isn’t the first time that Pawlenty’s actions have contradicted his words regarding the stimulus. Last August, Pawlenty told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt that most of the stimulus money was “misdirected” and “largely wasted” on projects that won’t create jobs. But weeks before Pawlenty’s comments, his own economic development director went on a 10 city road show titled “Advancing Economic Prosperity” touting the benefits of the stimulus. “Communities and job-seekers throughout Minnesota are seeing tangible results from this funding,” said Dan McElroy, Pawlenty’s “point man on jobs and economic development.”
Paw-hypocrite has a PAC already set up to run for President. If elected we can all look forward to yet another Republican president who has no shame when it comes to talking out both sides of his two faces.
A new low for the Cheneys and their friends - While the GOP bashes Obama for adopting Bush terror policies, the U.S. makes gains against the Taliban and al-Qaida
An extraordinary array of Republicans have been bashing the administration for "Mirandizing" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab over the last few days -- including Lindsey Graham, Kit Bond, Rudy Giuliani, Mitch McConnell and Michele Bachmann, to name a few -- even as the media admirably did its job reporting that the Bush administration had Mirandized every single terror suspect caught on its watch as well. Despite those facts, former Vice President Dick Cheney stepped up the attack on Obama Sunday on ABC's "This Week" -- and also admitted he's a war criminal (but more on that later.)According to laws on the books and the U.S. history of prosecuting those who torture prisoners, its refreshing in a way to hear one of the moral leaders of conservatism admit that authoritarian fascistic thinking is what guides their thinking and values.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces captured the most powerful Taliban leader they've grabbed since the war began in 2001, and intelligence sources tell Newsweek they've broken up a big al-Qaida plot in Yemen and Pakistan as well. More on that later too.
Asked about the way the administration treated Abdulmutallab, Cheney skewered the White House. "The proper way to deal with it would have been to treat him as an enemy combatant," says Cheney. "They didn’t know what to do with the guy." ABC's Jonathan Karl confronted Cheney with the fact that his administration had done the same thing with attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid (he didn't say they'd done the same with every terror suspect Bush-Cheney caught) and the former vice-president had to concede, "We could have put him in military custody, I don't question that."
Then Cheney unleashed his full attack, and it turns out he's trashing his old boss, George W. Bush, not just Obama. Reminded of Bush administration boasts of convicting 175 accused terrorists in U.S. courts -- the approach Obama has continued -- Cheney replied, shockingly: "Well, we didn't all agree with that."
He went on: "I won some, I lost some. I was a big supporter of waterboarding. I was a big supporter of enhanced interrogation techniques." (Anyone else hearing this sung to the tune of "My Way"?) This is the start of the Dick Cheney book tour, of course, but it's remarkable how much Cheney is trashing his former boss. Also, admitting he was "a big supporter of waterboarding" strengthens the hand of those who'd like to see Cheney charged as a war criminal.
