Tax proposal

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty delivered the first major speech of his Republican presidential campaign Tuesday in President Obama's hometown, blistering the president's handling of the economy and proposing tax cuts for businesses and individuals.

Speaking at the University of Chicago, across the street from where Obama once lectured at the university law school, Pawlenty contended his proposals combining lower tax rates with an emergency freeze on spending would be a "better deal" than what the Obama administration is offering.

"How are you enjoying your recovery summer? That's what the president said we were having. But that was last year," Pawlenty said. "Gas is nearly $4 a gallon. Home prices are in the gutter.... Unemployment's back over 9 percent. Our national debt has skyrocketed." Pawlenty's speech came on the heels of last month's slow job-growth numbers, an increase in the nation's unemployment rate to 9.1 percent and Wall Street fears of a possible double-dip recession.

But for a presidential contender stuck in low single digits in the polls, serious doesn’t get you anywhere in a news world driven by what’s trending on Google (which often includes any news item involving Google itself). So on Tuesday, the former Minnesota governor proposed a “Google Test,” as he made the standard Republican pitch for spending cuts.

“If you can find a service or good available on Google or the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn’t need to be doing it,” said Mr. Pawlenty, speaking at the University of Chicago. “The post office, the Government Printing Office, Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, were all built for a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products. But that’s no longer the case.”

Never mind that there really is no private-sector alternative to some things the US Postal Service does, such as rural mail delivery. Or Amtrak, outside of its most-trafficked routes. Pawlenty was making a point, and by invoking Google, it’s possible that some element of his speech will break through the miasma of junk news (dominated today by the antics of a Democrat, one Rep. Anthony Weiner).

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Otherwise, Pawlenty laid out an economic plan that borrowed from former President Reagan and went farther, in some ways, than House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, the wunderkind of modern-day economic conservatism. Pawlenty would reduce the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, down from its current 35 percent. He would close loopholes to make up for some of the lost revenue.