McPlenty – CATO Says Not More Of The Same
CATO rips into Pawlenty and uses him as the example of how “Republican” became a four letter word to voters. (my words not theirs)
A Big-Government Running Mate for McCain?
The Washington rumor mill has Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as the leading candidate to be John McCain’s running mate. If so, that would be a clear slap in the face to small-government conservatives.Pawlenty, who reportedly coined the term “Sam’s Club conservative†to describe his political philosophy, has been an economic populist and big-spender generally. Among other things, he:
- Supported government subsidized health care for all children as the first step toward universal health insurance, and opposed President Bush’s veto of a Democratic bill that would have expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance program (SCHIP) to families earning as much as $83,000 per year;
- Supports Massachusetts-style health care reform, including a “health care exchange†and an individual mandate;
- Has called for banning all prescription drug advertizing, and seeks government imposed price controls for drugs offered through Medicare;
- Proposed a $4000 per child preschool program for low-income children;
- Pushed a statewide smoking ban smoking ban in workplaces, restaurants and bars;
- Increased the state’s minimum wage;
- Imposed some of the most aggressive and expensive renewable energy mandates in the country;
- Was an ardent supporter of the farm bill;
- Received only a “C†ranking on Cato’s 2006 Governor’s Report Card, finishing below such Democrats as Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and tied with Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.
Read the rest, and hope McCain does too. Many people gave me grief for my calling Pawlenty a Big Government Republican, but the facts are the facts.Â
Frankly after McCain’s little speech yesterday, well I may not care who he picks, because I’ll probably be voting against him. Seriously, I don’t think he could pick a conservative enough VP to balance the ticket enough for me. We couldn’t have a worse Republican candidate at this time in history. We needed a limited government freedom loving inspirational person who could speak to the American people and move the political ball away from socialism. But we got John ‘the maverick’ McCain.Â
The Policy Guy also picked on the piece on True North.Â
It’s still hard for me to believe that a/any conservative would be against big government and yet want Obama to be president.
Look if you think Obama will do a better job then McCain in reducing the size of government, fine. That’s a valid opinion. But prove it.
I’m not convinced though that Obama would be more conservative then McCain. However, I’m open to be proven wrong as always. You prove to me that Obama will be more conservative then McCain as the next president, and not only will I vote for Obama, but I will support him wholeheartedly.
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[...] McPlenty – CATO Says Not More Of The Same [...]
By “voting against” McCain, what do you mean? Voting FOR Obama?
One of two candidates is going to win this year: McCain or Obama. Bob Barr’s not going to win. Ralph Nader probably won’t win. Candidate selection within the parties is part of the primary process, but now that that’s over, we have to be clear headed about our options.
If nothing else, judicial philosophy matters. Look at the Supreme Court cases this week: McCain supports individual rights to own guns and supported the confirmation of the Justices who voted the majority opinion in Heller. Obama does not support gun rights and voted against confirming those Justices. There will be one to three liberal Justices retiring in the next four years. McCain will solidify the conservative base on the Court and ensure a conservative Supreme Court for the next 20 years!
That’s more important than all the ticky-tack policy differences, isn’t it?
You’ll get the same SCOTUS nominees out of McCain as you’d get out of Obama. McCain’s hallmark is that of reaching across the aisle, and with a vastly dem Congress, you’re going to get liberal judges. Either way, we’re screwed this year. Let’s just hope those judges are taking their vitamins and can hang in there for another four.
Marianne-
We’re both simply guessing at this point, but McCain’s record of reaching out actually helps on this: the Dems will probably have 56 Senators after November, and he’ll need to negotiate a tricky balance.
With that said, McCain has a conservative judicial philosophy, and Obama does not. And while some “conservative” judicial nominees end up being liberals (Souter, for example, was nominated by Bush, Sr), rarely in modern times does a liberal end up conservative.
So with Obama we’re guaranteed to have one to three conservatives. We have to agree on that.
With McCain, we have the opportunity to solidify the Court’s conservative base long past his presidency.
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