Tim Pawlenty Visits Chicago To Offer Helpful Economic Advice

By aaroncynic in News on Jun 8, 2011 7:40PM

Republican Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty stopped by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy to deliver his first major campaign address yesterday, the Chicago Tribune Reports. Pawlenty took various swipes at President Obama, calling him a “champion practitioner of class warfare” and blaming “Obamacare” for increased health care expenses for Americans. In addition, the former Minnesota Governor pushed his own economic agenda, which calls for an overhaul of the U.S. tax code, further tax cuts for business and more privatization of government services.

Part of Pawlenty’s robust economic plan calls for what he likes to call “the Google test,” where “If you can find a good or service on the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn't need to offer the same good or service.” Salon and Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire both point out that Pawlenty’s novel, tech savvy 21st Century idea sounds pretty similar to former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith’s “Yellow Pages Test,” where if one could find three companies providing a certain service in the phone book, the city should probably leave those services to the market.

Since Chicago has already enjoyed privatizing various city services, we decided to come up with some more ideas for cutting city and federal spending via Pawlenty’s “Google Test.” Please let us know if we missed any opportunities:

Rob Christopher: Taste of Chicago? Pshaw, Grubhub. Pritzker Pavilion Monday Music Series? Naw. Pitchfork’s Forkcast.

Benjamin Lipsman: Who needs Streets and Sanitation when I can find contractors on Angie's List to fill that pot hole on my street? We can replace the CTA with ZipCar, the CPD with security guards found on CraigsList, and who needs government healthcare when we're inundated with discount pharmaceutical offers in our email?

Steven Pate: Blackwater still exists, so I guess we should just go ahead and slash that defense budget.

And our editor Chuck believes we could probably get rid of most festivals, public schools and community colleges.