Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota Governor and 2012 GOP Presidential contender, came out in favor of ending ethanol subsidies. In Iowa, no less.
Good for him. This is good governance and good politics.
Ethanol subsidies are among the most egregious examples of federal agribusiness pork, stealing money from taxpayers to give to Fortune 500 companies, not to mention driving up the price of food for poor people. Given the huge size of the Obama deficits, this fiscally and morally irresponsible subsidy is a great place to start trimming.
However, like all agribusiness subsidies, ethanol is extraordinarily popular among agriculture state politicians of both parties. Given how early the Iowa Caucuses fall in the Presidential election cycle, it’s long been thought that opposing ethanol (or any other agribusiness subsidies) was political suicide for a Presidential aspirant, which is why which is why normally free market Republicans like Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich have fallen all over themselves to pimp for subsidies to the likes of ADM.
But that was before Obama transformed the annual federal budget deficit from hundred of billions to trillions of dollars, and before the Tea Party flexed their muscles in the 2010 election. At long last reality may be intruding on this particular sacred subsidy cow. Simply put: If we can’t cut agribusiness subsidies, then there’s almost nothing we can cut, we’re heading toward a debt crises of horrifying proportions, and the future of the United States of America will look an awful lot like Greece’s present.
The political and structural barriers to real budget reform are daunting, so it’s going to require serious political courage (and Republicans in charge of the House, Senate and White House) to actually address. So far serious courage (or even courageous seriousness) have been in short supply in the 2012 Presidential race. Certainly Obama has none when it comes to the deficit; he either thinks he can come right up to the edge of the falls before jumping off the boat, or refuses to believe that the falls even exist. The Republican field has been somewhat better, but (as Gingirch’s Iowa pander exemplifies) not nearly enough.
Before his announcement, I must admit that I was only vaguely familiar with Pawlenty. His name showed up in National Review from time to time, but I wasn’t nearly as familiar with his work as governor as I was with, say, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels or Sarah Palin (yes, many of us were familiar with her before McCain tapped her as his running mate). As a 2012 GOP hopefully, Pawlenty was someone I considered way back in the pack, ahead of people like Herman Cain (the Presidency of the United States of America should not be an entry-level job) and Buddy Roemer (not switching to the Republican Party until 1991 indicates that he’s something of a slow learner), but behind almost everyone else.
Denouncing ethanol subsidies in Iowa displays precisely the sort of political courage the next President is going to need. For me, that moves Pawlenty out of the back of the pack and into the front ranks. He’s now in the conversation as a serious possibility, which he wasn’t really before. So two cheers for Tim Pawlenty.
Why not three cheers? Because he didn’t call for the complete elimination of all agribusiness subsidies…