Tim Pawlenty is not bashful when it comes to touting the A grade that the Cato Institute gave him in 2010 for his handling of fiscal issues as governor of Minnesota.
“I was just one of four governors in the country named by the Cato Institute to get an A grade in terms of fiscally conservative discipline,” he told CBN last October. In February, during an appearance on the Today show, Pawlenty said, “I’m only one of four governors in the country that got an A from the Cato Institute for the best fiscal discipline and management in the United States of America.” In March, he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that “the Cato Institute gave me one of four A grades for governors in the country, one of four.” And in case Hannity had forgotten since then, Pawlenty repeated the fact on Hannity’s show earlier this week: “The Cato Institute gave me an A grade, one of only four governors in the country to get that grade.”
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No doubt, Pawlenty’s A is impressive. But it’s the only one he received, despite being graded four times. In 2005, Pawlenty received a B. He sank to a C in 2006 and rose back to a B in 2008.
While Pawlenty received a glowing write-up from Cato in 2010, other years’ assessments were mixed. In early 2005, he was praised for making “good use of his executive authority to cut spending,” but urged to propose tax cuts. The following year, the report was grimmer, stating that Pawlenty had “started looking like a big spender. His [2005] budget . . . boosted spending by close to 6 percent mainly fueled by a casino license fee.” In 2008, there was concern over his corporate-tax hike and his backing of “substantial increases in fees and charges,” but there was also admiration for Pawlenty’s “impressive” list of vetoes, “including rejecting a gasoline tax increase, a hike in the top personal income tax rate, and various bloated spending bills.”
Generally, Pawlenty’s grades were about on par with the other governors now considering a 2012 bid. Utah governor Jon Huntsman got B’s in 2006 and 2008. Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was dinged with C’s in both 2004 and 2006. The worst grade went to Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, who received a D in 2006 for his “abysmal” tax record, including “his endorsement of higher taxes.” Daniels received B’s in 2008 and 2010.
Pawlenty, however, can point out that he is the only GOP governor considering a bid who has ever received an A. Chris Edwards, director of tax-policy studies at the Cato Institute and writer of the report in recent years, speaks highly of Pawlenty. “Based on his performance as governor, he’s likely to follow a pretty limited-government approach if he is elected president, more so than a governor who got a B or a C,” Edwards says.
He also says that Pawlenty did “very well” his last five years in office “in restraining spending and opposing tax increases.”
But ultimately, nabbing an A grade doesn’t guarantee a candidate conservative votes. Another governor who received an A from Cato? Florida’s Charlie Crist.
When I saw him flippantly defending the debt limit brinksmenship on Hannity I knew he is not presidential material. At bottom he is a finger in the wind pol out to advance himself. I'll take Daniels any day. Incidentally, Daniels is also right on taxes and Cato is wrong.
He's not conservative enough! He's not conservative enough!
Wasn't it Roger Williams who ultimately figured out that he was the only "saved" person on earth and thus could not be in a church with anyone but himself?
....Pawlenty is the next nominee and on balance has all the conservative credentials necessary to bring all factions of the right together.....I can not imagine anyone on the right "putting their social agenda on hold" to win the WH as Daniels (RINO) suggest. Better to work for a veto proof congress than to trade values for the WH…..
Given the legislature that Pawlenty was dealing with, his grades are quite good. He was always facing a Democrat majority in both houses of the Minnnesota legislature. Pawlenty consistenly outmanuvered the Democrats too. He is a good tactician.
Pompey...how is Daniels a "RINO"? Other than telling SoCons that getting our fiscal house in order is priority number 1? A sentiment which I agree with.
@phil c.>>Daniels didn't say fiscal issues should be priority number one. That actually would have been fine. What he said was that we need to have a "truce." Sorry, I for one, will not call a truce with people who would take advantage of such a concession.
When I saw him flippantly defending the debt limit brinksmenship on Hannity I knew he is not presidential material. "
what!?!? The ONLY way to get any progress with Obama, Reid and the Democrats on spending NOW is to force the issue to the wall - brinkmanship.
If you are NOT willing to go to the may to force spending cuts - and real and serious ones - as the price for increasing the debt limit, then you are not Presidential material.
Gary Johnson never got below a B. Look it up yourself.
Quote the report in 1996 (his first year included in report)
"New Mexico has the ignominious distinction of being one of the five biggest spending states in the union. The state government spends $2,500 more per family of four than does the average state. New Mexico has 335 state employees per 10,000 residents--almost twice the national average of 180. Taxes are 30 percent above the national average.Johnson, a businessman turned politician, is aggressively trying to make the state more taxpayer friendly. To control spending, Johnson has vetoed 200 bills passed by a liberal legislature. His first budget cut about $50 million in projected spending increases and holds expenditures below inflation. State employees sued Johnson last year for unilaterally cutting agency budgets by 2.5 percent. Last year he sought repeal of the gross receipts tax on prescription drugs, a $47 million income tax cut, and repeal of a 1993 6-cent-a-gallon gas tax hike. The legislature approved only the gas tax cut, but he continues to agitate for income tax relief. The Associated Press recently wrote of Johnson that he holds a "conservative, cut-government philosophy. . . . He stands for anti-politics, anti-government, and anti-politicians." In New Mexico his is a long-overdue voice for fiscal sanity."
My concern with T-Paw is his support for re-importation of drugs from Canada. If he is going to penalize the drug industry for being rational then how is he better from an economic perspective that the current president?
Wow, about on a par with Huntsman, Romney, and Daniels? The grades you report back up the Huntsman comparison, but certainly not the other two.
Pawlenty: B C B A
Huntsman: B B
Romney: C C
Daniels: D B B
If you think a B average and a C average are about the same, please don't ever give up your current job and try to become a school registrar!
I don't know how much of a curve Cato grades on, but as others point out, it's harder to get an A in Minn than in Texas. Of course it's even harder in Mass. But either Romney was graded on too kind a curve or Pawlenty wasn't graded on a kind enough one - how can the author of Romneycare get the same C grade that TPaw got once?
As for the Crist crack, Charlie was financially conservative despite his hug of Obama. Where Charlie was shaky was social issues, which Cato doesn't care about. But TPaw isn't weak here, unlike Crist (and Romney and Huntsman).
punishment of the drug industry for being rational?
Let's see... they get all of their R&D costs written off as tax credits, they charge the full cost of R&D on the inflated prices for the medication here in the States, and they get grants for R&D. How many ways and how many times can we be expected to pay for the same thing.
Let the market determine costs, and stop the direct and indirect subisdizing of an industry with an astronomical profit margin that is on the verge of having a single, compliant buyer of their product at whatever price they deem proper.
yikes, if T-Paw really is trying to undermine pharmaceutical companies playing the system designed by and for them to exploit the US taxpayers, then let's get him into the WH.
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