Here's one of the leading contenders for the Presidential nominiation in 2012, and his solution to fixing our economy... keep those Bush tax cuts in place for the rich and pass a Constitutional amendment that forces the Federal government to balance the budget. You've just got to love these born again deficit hawks that don't think the rich should ever have their taxes raised and think we can control the deficit without it. Pawlenty does say there should be exceptions to those budget cuts but did not elaborate at any time during the interview as to what those should be. If I had to guess dropping bombs on poor people's heads and paying for more wars would be one of them.

Pawlenty elaborated on his views here in an op-ed he wrote -- Balanced budget amendment will do just that:

As we begin a new year and Congress reconvenes, an unpleasant reality is increasingly hitting home with ordinary Americans: Leaders in both parties have irresponsibly run up debt. And, since President Obama took office, the debt crisis has grown exponentially worse. The only way to solve the problem in the long run is with a Constitutional amendment. Read on...

Of course Pawlenty thinks that the stimulus plan has failed as well and we need to put a stop to that. More tax cuts!! Yeah, that's the ticket. We all know how well those that worked with stimulus 1 that Bush put through with tax cuts that didn't do an ounce of good. Of course that's not going to get in the way of Pawlenty and his talking points.