TODAY IN REAL QUOTES

“We can start by applying what I call the Google test. If you can find a good or service on the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn’t need to be doing it.”
-Tim Pawlenty, today

Other than pushing the idea that contracting government spending will help create jobs (go ask a British person how that’s working out)  and that tax decreases will somehow lower the deficit (go ask THESE GUYS to explain how that works) - the “Google Test” is truley mind-boggling.

If we were to take President Pawlenty at his word, here are the things the government shouldn’t be paying for - because if you can find it on the internet, it was “built for a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products. That’s no longer the case.”

lets see:

Education.
Why should the government pay for this when you can just pay a private company to do the same thing? if you can’t afford it, well, there are plenty of jobs that don’t require reading.

Medicare.
You can google health insurance, so old people should just be letting the market dictate price like the rest of us do. And if they can’t afford it? Well, Grandma’s lived long enough, hasn’t she?

Social Security.
If you have no savings and you’re past working age. There is an obvious market-based solution.

The Military.

FYI. If you have enough money,  you can hire a military on the internet. This therefore fails Pawlenty’s “Google Test”.
It doesn’t prove that Pawlenty is suggesting we cut or privatize the military, but it does prove that he’s a fucking idiot.

…now we’ll just have to wait and see if anyone calls him on it.