Pawlenty Turns Joke Into Reality

Yesterday, I joked that Tim Pawlenty would respond to the objection that no country has ever experienced a decade of 5% growth by invoking "American Exceptionalism." And voila, Pawlenty's campaign writes:

Obama's economic team doesn't have a plan, so their spokespeople attack ours. The idea that they don't believe in the American people enough to say that we can grow the economy at 5% GDP really says everything.

Defending an economic projection on grounds of patriotic belief kind of gives the game away, doesn't it?

And it doesn't even make sense on its own terms. We didn't have 5% annual growth every year when we had the American people and George W. Bush. Didn't have 5% annual growth every year when we had the American people and Bill Clinton. Or George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and so on. So to assert that we probably won't do it under Tim Pawlenty's crazy wage tax plan does not necessarily represent a lack of faith in the American people.