Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 10: GAMC

I finished Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand.

There were a variety of interesting items in my latest reading of this book.  First, I appreciated Pawlenty's distinction between radical Muslims and other Muslims, in light of the tendency of a large portion of the right-wing to lump all Muslims together as evil.  Second, Pawlenty criticizes President Barack Obama for alienating the United States' allies----Poland, the Czech Republic, and Israel----and for supporting an arms treaty with Russia "that favors Russia and all but affirms Russia's decision to help Iran fire up a nuclear energy reactor" (page 292).  I don't know a whole lot about this issue, so I really can't critique Pawlenty on this right now, but I've decided to make a note of it.  Third, Pawlenty asks why we need NPR and PBS when there are already so many radio and cable TV programs.  I have an answer to that: because NPR and PBS actually offer quality programming.

I'd like to turn my focus to health care, since that is an issue that is of interest to me.  On pages 283-285, Pawlenty talks about General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) in Minnesota, a government program.  According to Pawlenty, "GAMC provided unlimited health care for low-income single adults without kids."  But its costs were rising because (according to Pawlenty) "It was an old-style 'fee for service' setup that paid providers for how many procedures they performed without much accountability for cost control or quality outcomes."

Pawlenty narrates that he was emotionally impacted by a man in a wheelchair in Mankato (which I know from Little House on the Prairie), who plead with Pawlenty not to cut his health care.  But Pawlenty says that his goal as Governor was to move the beneficiaries of GAMC to MinnesotaCare, another health care program for disadvantaged people.  Pawlenty states that MinnesotaCare "had benefits that were more limited than GAMC, and the switch would be more affordable to the state."  Pawlenty reached a compromise with the state legislature: Instead of giving GAMC a "blank check", the government would give hospitals a lump sum to treat "a fixed number of GAMC patients."  Pawlenty states that, under this policy, "Providers now had incentive to focus on the wellness of GAMC patients and health-care outcomes rather than how many procedures they performed."

This sounds a lot like rationing, which many on the right love to condemn when it comes to government health insurance.  But there is a degree of wisdom in Pawlenty's policy, in my opinion: Rather than giving providers an incentive to order more and more tests for patients in order to get more money for themselves, why not give the providers a lump sum, and that could encourage them to try to get healthy results for their patients for a low cost, with the lump sum that the government gives them?  I hope, however, that this would not lead to the providers denying patients the care that they need.  I fear that it might.

UPDATE: I talk here about Ezra Klein's contention that moving Medicare away from a fee-for-service model was one of the conservative ideas that Obamacare adopted.

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 9

In my latest reading of Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand, Pawlenty talks about how he was on the list to be John McCain's running mate in 2008, John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin instead, and the problems that Pawlenty believes are inherent in President Barack Obama's bailouts and deficits.  Here are the passages that stood out to me, along with my comments:

"[John McCain would] wake up and hit the road with a big Starbucks coffee in his hand, and he'd have a story or a wisecrack for everything.  He'd tell these corny old jokes, and it was clear he'd been telling some of the same jokes for twenty years, but he'd laugh the same at each one of them..." (page 243).

That's something that I've heard about John McCain: that he has a sense of humor.  I remember McCain soon before the November 2008 election appearing on Saturday Night Live with Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin, and, in the skit, he was selling stuff on QVC due to his campaign's lack of funds.  (See here, though I could have done without the narrator's nitpicking.)  I liked how he was willing to laugh at himself rather than taking himself too seriously.  At the same time, I've also read that McCain can be rather arrogant (see here).  Overall, though, I'd probably enjoy working on a McCain campaign, as long as I did not try to start an argument with him!  I don't think he's the type who chews people out for making mistakes, for I read in one book about the 2008 campaign that he often joked about the mistakes that his staff made.  I can't speak in absolutes, however, because I'm only commenting based on my limited reading.

"There was a funny moment earlier that morning, though.  Just after I got off the phone with McCain, I took our dog out for a walk so she could do her dog's duty...As I put the little bag over my hand and bent down to pick up her poop, I thought to myself, Well, this is the only number two I'll be picking up today" (page 259).

This is after Pawlenty learned he would not be the number-two on McCain's ticket!

"[Sarah Palin] came to Minnesota in 2010, on a Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of a workday, and twelve thousand people showed up to see her.  Many of them were camped out by breakfast time so they could get in the door first upon her arrival that afternoon.  These people all had tickets.  They were all going to get in.  The only reason they camped out is because they wanted to sit up front.  There aren't five other politicians in the country who could come to town and get half that turnout" (page 263).

I agree with Pawlenty on this: Sarah Palin does draw crowds.  There was a time when I probably would have camped out so I could sit in the front row and hear her speak.  Nowadays, probably not (though it would be interesting if I could meet her at a book-signing).  I remember turning on the TV to watch Hannity's show because I knew that Ralph Reed would be on, for (while I'm not exactly right-wing) I enjoy listening to Reed's political analysis.  I was disappointed to see Sarah Palin on the program, spouting cliches and platitudes rather than sophisticated policy analysis.  There was a time in the 2008 campaign when I was trying to watch every interview Sarah Palin was in.  I think it was the Katie Couric interviews that laid that obsession to rest.

"Listening to the debate in Washington, a pattern seems to be emerging: folks at the bottom of our economy get a handout, folks at the top get a bailout, and the rest of us get our wallets out."

I don't entirely agree with this, for President Barack Obama's Administrative has been largely supportive of a number of tax cuts for the middle class.  As far as the bailouts go, I'm sympathetic with Pawlenty's critique, but I think that the bailouts were necessary to save our economy.  And I wish that Pawlenty displayed more compassion in this passage for the "folks at the bottom" rather than making the issue one of "the rest of us" vs. them.

On Amazon, I read some negative book reviews of Pawlenty's book, and some of the negative commenters were saying that Pawlenty as Governor of Minnesota raised fees, contributed to an increase in property taxes, and slashed programs that were helping the poor and the middle-class, even as he supported a low tax burden for the rich.  Maybe this is true.  I don't know.  It does seem to fit what strikes me as true regarding a number of Republicans these days: they're for decreasing the tax burden on the rich, but not so much for decreasing the financial burdens on the poor and the middle class.  There are exceptions to this (i.e., the Bush tax cuts for the middle class), but it's nevertheless an overall trend that appears to me to exist.

(UPDATE: On page 273, Pawlenty says that, when he was Governor, Minnesota capped and cut property taxes and eliminated the marriage penalty.  He says on page 274 that both the rich and the poor should be paying lower taxes, and on page 288 that he said no to health care fees that Democrats supported.)

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 8: Roots

In my latest reading of Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand, Pawlenty talks about his difficult 2006 bid for re-election as Governor of Minnesota (in a time when Republicans were particularly unpopular nationwide), and how he and others dealt with the tragedies of a collapsing bridge and a flood.

I especially liked something that Pawlenty said on page 215 about when his race for Governor got tough: "And we went to Holy Trinity in South St. Paul, to sit still for a while and to pray.  We know that God is happy to meet us anywhere, but on that day I felt like I needed that connection to my roots.  The church was quiet, and someone turned on a few soft lights.  As we left the church, we were fully prepared for any outcome."

Pawlenty was raised a Catholic, but he later went to an evangelical church with his wife Mary.  But, when he was experiencing a difficult race for Governor, he felt a need to re-connect with his Catholic roots, not so much because he thought God would help him to win if he prayed, but more because he wanted God to be with him, whatever the outcome might be.

There's something special about re-connecting with one's roots.  I currently do not really observe the seventh-day Sabbath and the annual holy days, for I do on those days what I do on other days: I read, I study, and I blog.  But there may come a time when I will re-connect more with my roots----a time when things were simpler (or so they seemed).

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 7: Meeting Mellencamp

In my latest reading of Courage to Stand, Tim Palwenty talks about his wife and two daughters, as well as the celebrities that he met, such as Bill Clinton and John Cougar Mellencamp.  I especially enjoyed Pawlenty's story about meeting Mellencamp when Mellencamp was doing a concert in Minnesota.  Pawlenty was a fan, but he feared that Mellencamp would be "a prickly guy, especially when it came to politics", since Mellencamp had different political leanings than Pawlenty (page 192).  But Pawlenty was pleasantly surprised that Mellencamp did not care that Pawlenty was a Republican and was quite hospitable to him, as Pawlenty ate with Mellencamp, Mellencamp's wife and father, and band members.  Pawlenty says on page 193, "I discovered John Mellencamp is a genuinely great guy, completely unassuming and welcoming."

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 6: Public Sector Unions and Health Care

I have two items from my latest reading of Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand.

1.  Pawlenty talks about his conflict with the bus drivers union.  I talked some about this in my last post on this book, for I quoted Pawlenty's lament that there were people who had worked only fifteen years as public bus drivers yet were receiving a lifetime of health insurance on account of that job, thereby costing the state of Minnesota a lot of money.  In my latest reading, Pawlenty discusses the union's strike that took place when Pawlenty was challenging that particular policy.  Fortunately, Pawlenty and the union reached an agreement: lifetime health insurance would not be granted to newly-hired bus drivers.

How did Pawlenty and the union get to the bargaining table?  You'd think that the union would have all the power, since a necessary service was going on strike, and it could stay on strike unless the union's demands were met.  But that's not exactly what happened.  Why not, according to Pawlenty?  First of all, people in the Twin Cities found creative ways to work around the problem of an absent bus service so they could get to work, and that eased the union's stranglehold.  Second, when Pawlenty told voters in Minnesota that people were getting lifetime health insurance after only working for fifteen years, many voters thought that was outrageous and thus sided with Pawlenty.  Third, Pawlenty states that bus drivers were eager to get back to work after a month of not working, and so they were pressuring union leaders to settle.

I am against depriving public-sector unions of all of their power to bargain collectively.  At the same time, I'm against unions strangling a location until all of its demands are met, especially if those demands cost the taxpayers a lot of money.  I hope there's a way for negotiations with public-sector unions to be true negotiations----with give-and-take.

2.  I did not care for something that Pawlenty said about health care.  On page 177, Pawlenty says that the third-payer system makes the health care system like an open bar, and that people "consume goods and services without knowing or caring about price or quality", since somebody else is paying the bill.  But many people are not getting their health care cheaply or for free, for they have to pay high premiums, or high copays or deductibles.  Then there are cases in which health insurance companies choose not to cover certain operations.  People who receive Medicaid may get health care for free, but this is because they cannot afford health insurance.  I wish that Pawlenty were more sensitive to these issues.

Pawlenty does talk about his state's successful attempts to keep premium increases "relatively small or flat for five years" for state employees.  Essentially, they are given a choice: they pay less if they go with a "higher-quality, more efficient provider", and more if they choose a "costly alternative".  I'm interested in learning about what this entails, for why would anyone choose a costly health insurance package over one that is high-quality and more efficient?  My hunch is that she'd do so because the costlier package covers more, whereas the "higher-quality, more efficient provider" is more stingy.  That's just my hunch, though.

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 5

In my write-up today on Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand, I'll feature a couple of Pawlenty's statements on big government, then I will briefly comment.

On page 135, Pawlenty says the following:

"In the course of my lifetime, Minnesota had become a place where the government was the primary caretaker for too many people, which meant many people no longer had the incentive to plan and take care of themselves.  For example, our mass transit system's bus drivers were retiring after only fifteen years on the job and yet were qualifying for government-paid health insurance for the rest of their lives.  We lived in a state where teachers' salaries increased year after year based on seniority rather than results.  Public-employee pensions and well-intentioned social service programs were on autopilot, and their costs were out of control."

On page 137, Pawlenty states:

"We've reached a troubling point in America.  The Associated Press recently reported that 47 percent of Americans didn't pay any federal income tax in 2009.  Forty-seven percent!  Now, consider also all those whose jobs are not generated by the private sector but by government.  I'm talking about all employees who work directly for the government or whose jobs are funded at government expense...That sure looks and feels to me like a country that has become addicted to government.  How can that not be despiriting?  The kind of collective lethargy we see now is reminiscent of what we've seen in Greece and other places where large numbers of citizens think of the government as their primary caretaker."

There are things that I agree with here.  I think that governments should be fiscally responsible, and that government workers (i.e., teachers) should receive pay increases based on them generating quality results.  But I don't think it's so horrible that so many people are working for the government.  Heck, they're receiving salaries, and they put that money into the private-sector economy by spending and investing.  Imagine the further trouble the economy would be in were that to be cracked down on.  Pawlenty points to Greece as an example of a place where government debt has had disastrous consequences.  Well, many progressives point to countries where austerity has not worked out for the economy.

Moreover, public-sector employees, such as police officers and firefighters, help the private sector by protecting businesses from dangers.

At the same time, I have a slight issue with government employees receiving cush benefits, when so many people in America struggle.  I wish that there were a way to bring some of those benefits to all Americans.  I have in mind a national health insurance system.  That could actually help the economy.  People, for example, could then go out and start businesses rather than being tied to a job for its health benefits.

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 4

In my latest reading of Courage to Stand, Tim Pawlenty tells funny stories about his campaigns for public offices.  Like Michele Bachmann (another Minnesotan Republican), Pawlenty presents himself as an underdog going up against significant odds, and yet Pawlenty narrates that he wins through hard work and reaching out to the voters.  I enjoyed Pawlenty's stories about when he went door-to-door and contended with ferocious dogs, as well as explained his policy positions to people who answered the door in their underwear.  As someone who used to go door-to-door to raise money for causes, I could identify with some of Pawlenty's stories!

I'd like to focus on a story that Pawlenty tells on pages 90-91 about a man named Lafayette, whom Pawlenty knew when he (Pawlenty) was an attorney.  Lafayette's job was "to keep the underground parking ramp clean and to assist people if they needed it."  Lafayette consistently had a positive attitude and was kind, energetic, and joyful, and Pawlenty asked Lafayette why this was the case.  Lafayette was pleased that Pawlenty asked, and Lafayette responded that it was due to his faith in God.  Pawlenty writes: "In all the years I'd known him, he never said, 'I'm a believer.'  He never handed me a Bible or a pamphlet.  He simply demonstrated through his actions, through the way he conducted himself, what it means to be kind to other people, what it means to be generous, what it means to be thoughtful, joyful, helpful."

I have a variety of reactions to this story:

1.  Some of my relatives believe that those who jabber on about their faith probably have not experienced the real thing.  I think that's rather judgmental, myself, but I know that I am not especially keen on sharing my religious beliefs with people.  I feel more authentic when I simply try to live the right way, without attempting to sell people religion.

2.  I've known people like Lafayette, who are joyful on account of their faith.  At one school that I attended, I regularly saw a man at one of the school libraries who checked bags at the entrance, and he radiated joy.  I later saw him at a Pentecostal church that I visited.  I'm puzzled as to how Christianity can give anyone joy----with its message that so many people will burn in hell forever and ever.  Moreover, I do not understand how conservative Christians could believe that and feel comfortable with a lifestyle evangelism that does not entail explicitly sharing the Gospel.  But there are conservative Christians who are happy.

3.  I admire and am inspired by the example of Lafayette and people like him.  But I don't think that I should judge Christians who are not as sunny, nor do I believe that people should judge me for not radiating as much "joy" as they think I should radiate.  I struggle with the first, considering the number of Christians who are flat-out jerks.  But I know that I do not like being judged, and so I should not judge others.

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 3

For my write-up today on Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand, I'll highlight something that Pawlenty says on page 67:

"My siblings were in a starkly different place from me politically during their early adult lives.  My brother Steve was a union steward, an organizer who passed out union cards, got union authorization for workplace representation, even picketed.  My older brother, Dan, was a union member at an oil refinery.  Later, he went to work for a city and was part of the union there, too.  Over time, both of them saw the shortcomings of the liberal agenda and started to be open to other arguments."

I can identify with this passage because I myself had strong ideological convictions yet came to the point where I became open to other arguments.  I was a conservative, but I got to the point where a number of conservative arguments rang hollow to me----the notion that tax cuts for the rich will trickle down and create a host of jobs, the argument that the American health care system is so good because emergency rooms are required to treat everyone (as if that is adequate, and does not contain problems of its own), etc.

Pawlenty does not detail (at least in this passage) what problems his brothers had with "the liberal agenda".  I can only speculate.  Perhaps they concluded that unions were flawed, with their bosses, and other factors.  Maybe they came to distrust government, or to believe that runaway government spending creates a lot of debt, which would even hurt the little guy whom they championed.  There is enough human nature on all sides to convince people to be open to other arguments.  The situation many of us are in is trying to decide which imperfect policy is better.

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 2

In my latest reading of Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand, Pawlenty talks about losing his mother to cancer in the late 1970's.

This was a sad story to read.  Pawlenty's mother for a long time ignored her physical pain because she was committed to her work as a wife and a mother.  She was a Republican who supported Nixon, which was rare where Pawlenty lived, and Pawlenty said, "I can only imagine how much fun it would have been to discover that we shared some mutual political interests as I grew older" (page 31). On her death bed, she told Pawlenty's siblings to make sure that Pawlenty went to college, and Pawlenty was puzzled about what special potential she saw in him.  Pawlenty also said that he expected his parents to always be there, but, in the case of his Mom, that did not happen.  And Pawlenty's father, a strong blue-collar worker, broke down in tears when his wife died (plus, he had to deal with unemployment at the time).

Pawlenty narrates that God was with him through all of this, and that his faith was deepened in prayer and at church.  Moreover, Pawlenty said that God sent a human angel----someone who gave Pawlenty a job in the produce department at the grocery store, which helped Pawlenty through college.

Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand 1

I started Tim Pawlenty's Courage to Stand.  Tim Pawlenty was the Republican Governor of Minnesota from 2003-2011, as well as a Republican candidate for President in 2011.

In my latest reading, I particularly enjoyed Pawlenty's stories about growing up as a child in the 1960's: about his work and play; about his mother, his blue-collar father, and his grandmother, all of whom spent time with him; about how he regularly walked home from school for lunch; and about how he looks back fondly at the times when he listened to the adults' conversations.

I also liked Pawlenty's stories about his interactions with his gubernatorial predecessor, former wrestler Jesse Ventura.  Pawlenty says that he defused a confrontation with Ventura when Ventura came after him back when Pawlenty was the House Majority Leader.  Pawlenty had said that Ventura was leaving "the taxpayers behind enemy lines" by increasing state taxes, and that enraged Ventura, a former Navy man.  But Pawlenty apologized to Ventura, and Ventura accepted the apology.  Pawlenty says on pages 4-5: "The hockey player and wrestling fan in me would have taken some pride in surviving a Jesse Ventura smackdown.  But the apology felt better...Sometimes an apology is itself a sign of strength."

When Pawlenty was elected Governor and asked Ventura if he had any advice for him, Ventura replied "nope".  Pawlenty says: "He didn't try to tell me what to do, and I respected that, and his team turned out to be very helpful during the transition."

In terms of public policy, Pawlenty says that he accomplished conservative things in a liberal state, a state that spawned Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Paul Wellstone, and Al Franken.  He'll probably elaborate on that later in the book.  Pawlenty presents himself as one who was for balanced budgets without raising taxes, noting that Minnesotans already had a high tax burden.  On page xi, he criticizes "Spending our way out of debt" and asks, "Does that really make sense?"  I think that it does, if it is done right.  If people are not spending money, and somebody needs to spend money for the economy to be stimulated, then why can't the government be the spender?