Republicans, stimulus and finding a line

by Mark Silva

Will the real Republicans please stand up?

We've reported here on Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida welcoming President Barack Obama to pitch the economic stimulus bill that all of the House's Republicans voted against.

And we've reported here on House Republicans who opposed it, such as Rep. John Mica of Florida, touting the benefits of it, such as high-speed rail for Florida.

Now we're reporting on a Republican governor who complains: "The federal government is spending money they don't have... deeper and deeper in debt.'' Yet one who, unlike some of the other Republican governors, stands ready to collect some of the money for his state.

That's Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who, in retrospect, probably could have done more for Sen. John McCain than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin did last year on the GOP's presidential ticket. He had some pointed things to say about all this in an interview iwth Mike Barnicle on MSNBC's Hardball:

"It seems in recent history, for most of the years, whether a Republican's in the house or a Democrat or Republicans are in charge of Congress or the Democrats, they have forgotten or letten go of the importance and the goal of balancing the budget

"it's funny how defeat leads to pragmatism, and the Republican Party is going to remain a conservative party as it should but we also need to be about growing the party and people who agree with us 90% of the time or 85% of the time aren't our enemies... As Ronald Reagan said so, this needs to be a party about growth but in politics, you know, we are the marketplace party. the marketplace telling us they prefer the products and services of the competitors. If we are a winning, growing, governing party, we need to be about including more people not throwing people overboard. ''

People like Crist, Mica, and those learning to love the stimulus?

Here's a rough transcript of the exchange.

BARNICLE: you didn't like the package, the stimulus package. what didn't you like about it? tell me.

GOV. PAWLENTY: a number of things. first of all weeshd keep in mind the federal government is spending money they don't have. deeper and deeper in debt and most of the money ultimately coming from china because they're the ones buying the debt substantially and so we need to put some definition around how far we're going to go further into debt as a country but secondly this is a stimulus package that does not focus on bread and butter things like tax cuts. i would have mutt more money in peoples' pockets or infrastructure projects. most bipartisan people could have supported and ran into a but fay of other things and beyond the core areas of focus. lastly, disappointing because president obama said he was going to usher in an era of bipartisan leadership and this was a missed nunt that regard because i think with a slightly more focused bill he would have received substantially more republican support.

BARNICLE: all right. look at. you are a good guy, a bipartisan guy. you have the atom on thes in the house of representatives. they stand up on mass and not one republican votes for the stimulus plan. i understand that. let me get back to the top of your answer because it's something that really annoys me as a taxpayer and as a citizen. president george w. bush came into office with a surplus in january 2001. for the first time in history from the time people went to war throwing rocks at one another he decided to fight a two-front war in iraq and afghanistan and raise -- and cut taxes instead of raising taxes. he cut taxes and raised -- and waged war and we ended up with a huge deficit when he goes out of office january 20th and now not just you but other republicans, well, mortgaging the children's future. we were mortgaging it for eight years!

GOV. PAWLENTY: well, if i could be more candid, mike, it doesn't matter it seems in recent history for most of the years whether a republican's in the house or a democrat or republicans are in charge of congress or the democrats. they have forgotten or letten go of the importance and the goal of balancing the budget. i believe the only way to do that is a requirement that the federal budget be balanced. it is not just president bush. you can also go back a decades before that and see the trend line and it's going up and up regardless of which party's in control of which of those institutions. we need to have as a country a mechanism that says enough is enough because they can't do it on their own it seems.

BARNICLE: so now you have got -- you know, people in the chattering class, people living in washington, people that play politics all the time whether it's in the media or the floor of the house or the senate saying pawlenty, against the stimulus package and takes the money, he is a hypocrite. i don't buy that. what will you spend the money on when you get it?

GOV. PAWLENTY: well, if i i could make two quick responses to that argument. number one, where was that double standard when democratic governors or liberal governors in the past said i'm against military spending but taking national guard money or no child left behind but i take education money or against tax cuts but i won't voice objection to the citizens receiving the benefits of those cuts or credits? so let's make sure we look at that argument in its full glory and hypocrisy of the commentators making that argument to begin with. minnesota is a substantial net contributor to the federal government. we get about 73 cents back and paying the bill and 46 least recipient of any state in the nation of any federal money. the federal government is telling us to how to spend the money. they put it in categories and in minnesota the bulk goes to education and human services, infrastructure and other miscellaneous categories but they'll have us spending more money in any category than anyone would have imagined under these circumstances and that's unusual. they're intervening in a very big way.

BARNICLE: governor, we let you out of here, what do you think about the possibility that the republican party fractures eventually between people like you, republicans like you, governors and some republican mayors, who have hands on every day jobs, you have to make decisions for people. playgrounds, curb cuts, taxes, up and down and then the other side you have perhaps another republican party of people in the house of represent fs who sit in safe seats, two-year terms, no opposition, all they do is raise money and run successfully. do you think that -- it could happen that there's a fracture there?

GOV. PAWLENTY: no. because it's funny how defeat leads to pragmatism and the republican party is going to remain a conservative party as it should but we also need to be about growing the party and people who agree with us 90% of the time or 85% of the time aren't our enemies. this i're our friends as ronald reagan said so this needs to be a party about growth but in politics, you know, we are the marketplace party. the marketplace telling us they prefer the products and services of the competitors. if we are a winning, growing, governing party we need to be about including more people not throwing people overboard.