Republicans have no right to complain they had 5 years of supermajority, the house the senate and the presidency and they did nothing.

Zero!

No healthcare reform, no investigation of federal reserve, no balanced budget amendment.

And look at the mess they left.

Republicans had their chance, its a failed party. We need real conservatives.

Interesting how the left is so furious they have to come on this site when Mr. Obama said he won, and has been changing America to leftist bowing apologetic glory ever since.

For the reality, if Mr. Pawlenty balances his budget without raising taxes, I am all for it, because otherwise America will face what Mr. Obama is going to install in balancing his rapine of the US Treasury by taking every cent from every American in taxes.

he’s a sensible choice for anybody who does not care if a highway bridge collapses while that person is driving on it

his perfect running mate is booby jindal.the guy who thinks volcano monitoring is a waste of time (wonder how he feels about monitoring hurricanes, bet he supports that)

and the bridges will collapse, the schools will go broke, children will die, society will atrophy, the fire department and police will no longer function

but you’ll have a damn low tax rate

just enough to pay pawlenty’s salary

vote repuglitarded

help destroy America NOW

pawlenty in 2012

Oh yeah, I remember, Timmy is running for president. Maybe he can do for the USA what he did for Minnesota: Drive it into the ditch.

What we need is a binding PLEDGE for all elected republican officials, legislators and executives that would bar them from engaging in deficit spending, or letting it go unopposed. Failure to uphold this principle results in immediate expulsion from the party with no second chance.
The only exception would be for existential threats to the nation, approved by a 90% vote from the respective republican caucus to define the threat as existential.
Are we serious about ending the debt or not?
The democrats cannot be relied on and so far the republicans have proven themselves to be just as unreliable.
Who do we want to be?

At the beginning of the article Pawlenty notes that unfunded liabilities from Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, etc., place our debt around $65 trillion. Good point.

He then goes on to say we must curb discretional spending. True. But what about mandatory spending, the almost two thirds of the budget that are on autopilot and don’t face annual appropriations? That’s where the money is. We can cut discretionary to the bone, but if we don’t start looking at our entitlement spending, and ways of cutting it, we’re in more hurt than Pawlenty wants to admit.

I always pay attention to a Pawlenty interview. He’d be a sensible choice for the Republicans in 2012, assuming Republicans are interested in sensible. I’m hoping so.