Behind again, just getting these posted.

From the white paper:

In 2007, Pawlenty pushed for a regional cap-and-trade plan. He signed the Next Generation Energy Act of 2007 into law, which required the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2015 and 80 percent by 2050. In addition, according to the non-partisan fact check St. Petersburg Times’ Politifact.com, Pawlenty "played a leading role in persuading members of the Midwest Governors Association to sign the Midwestern Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, an agreement that the states would develop a cap-and-trade mechanism to achieve greenhouse gas reductions in the area.”

Since then he has backed off of the AGW regulation horse (Crap and Tax).

He renounces Cap and trade, but I do recall a speech he made somewhere where he equivocated on the idea of AGW itself. I can’t find that now. It does appear that he is trying hard to walk back his record on Crap and Tax.

On a scale of -10 to 10 on the AGW issue (Al Gore gets –10) I will give him a zero. This is still a heavy burden for him to overcome.

Also, on the Issue site gives him high marks for Gun Control.

None of this is surprising though. Although MN is a heavy blue State, it is also a big hunting State so being pro gun control there is not healthy for a politician.

But, in the end, he has more than rhetoric backing him up on gun control, he gets high marks here.

On taxes club for growth gives him generally good marks, but dings him for a few small tax increases, including a 75 cent a pack cigarette tax, and the fact that a lot of his tax reductions were "carve-outs” for specific companies. I’ll him a plus here.

On spending this is the quote from the white paper:

"Pawlenty’s record on spending while in the state legislature was both good and bad”.

They praise him for his budget cuts and holding the line on spending but then ding him for direct subsidies and bills to support private ventures.

On "tax and spend” I am willing to give him a little slack. He is in a heavy blue State with a Dem legislature and he was able to hold the line on a lot of items. To me that is good so I am going to give a plus here.

On Regulation the quote from the white paper:

"Perhaps more so than any other issue, Pawlenty’s record on regulation is deeply troubling.”

His support for cap and trade, his call for mandating vegetable oil in diesel fuel, his call for raising the min wage in MN, his support for ethanol mandates in MN, and his support of the nanny State smoking ban in MN all gave him bad marks.

So what is the overall verdict for "small government”? Somewhat mixed for tax and spend with mitigation for a Dem legislature and a bad record for support on the heavy hand of government. I give him a neutral here.

On this his record and rhetoric is mixed. He opposed Obamacare but supported S-CHIP and socialized kid stuff in MN. He urged market solutions for healthcare in MN as governor. His current web site attacks Obamacare hard. I’ll give him a neutral here largely because again we are talking blue-blue here.

He generally gets high marks on this issue. He did support and sign into law a requirement for electronic verification for State employees in MN. He has called for immigration enforcement as well. I seem to recall though that he offered some kind of compromise on the infamous McCain-Kennedy bill of 2006 but I can’t find it. If any of the Morons have anything on this let me know.

On this I’ll give him a plus.

From On The Issues and Jawa it appears that he has been pro-life in actions, rhetoric,and record.

For the folks who have this as a major concern he gets a plus here.

His biggest hit is support for cap and trade and ethanol mandates. He is now trying to walk that back which is a huge "row to hoe” after so much support for so long. On the other issues his record has good and bad.

From my prospective because of the cap and tax he would not go on my short list but I could support him if it boils down to the end. He is NOT a huge RINO, but neither is he a huge conservative.

Posted by: Vic at June 10, 2011 10:48 AM (M9Ie6)

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