"The Economist" : Republican candidates try to out-tea-party one another - Pushing economic policy to the absurd right - Pawlenty has no rational economic policy fit for a president. He lays out an irrational economic policy fit for Republican primary voters

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It has been proved under the George W. Bush Administration that the Economic Theories of Tim Pawlenty do not work and sink the Economy. But it is necessary to move to the far right in order to win the Republican Primaries.

British "The Economist"
Tim Pawlenty's economic plan
Moving right, way right
June 8th 2011
WASHINGTON, DC


Tim Pawlenty's economic plan


Some excerpts :

Under Mr Obama tax rates are about where they were during that Clinton boom—as a percentage of GDP taxes are actually lower than under Clinton or Reagan—and apparently that's too high. So Mr Pawlenty would slash the corporate income tax rate and flatten the individual income tax into two brackets: 10% for income under $50,000 and 25% for income over that amount. Now you might be thinking about the devastating effect that would have on the deficit. But you forget that the economy will be growing by 5% over ten years thanks to those tax cuts, generating increased revenue that will naturally lower the deficit. For an example of how this will all work in practice, see the Bush tax cuts. Or, if you're Mr Pawlenty, ignore them.

On spending, Mr Pawlenty is more vague—he wants a constitutional amendment that would cap federal spending at 18% of GDP. Glenn Kessler points out that "after the Reagan and Bush tax cuts, tax receipts as a percentage of GDP dropped well below 18%". He adds that the candidate "is proposing so much deficit reduction that he cannot meet his goal even by eliminating ALL spending on nondefense discretionary programs." But again, never mind all that.

The purpose of Mr Pawlenty's speech was not to lay out a rational economic policy fit for a president. The purpose was to lay out an irrational economic policy fit for Republican primary voters. And, just as important, to lay down a marker for Mitt Romney, Mr Pawlenty's main Hunt Mitchman rival and the current frontrunner. By staking out ground so far to the right, he now forces Mr Romney to forge an even zanier economic scheme, lest he be accused of dishonoring the legacy of Reagan (as defined by people far to the right of Reagan). It's a canny political strategy.

And it's awful for America. As the candidates try to out-tea-party one another, they push the Overton window of acceptable economic policy to the absurd right. This makes it much more difficult for a reasonable Republican candidate to win office, and for any Republican politician to support reasonable economic policy. And no matter what party you belong to, you should find it troubling that Mr Pawlenty's ridiculous economic plan could ever be considered acceptable by a large portion of the population.

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