June 08, 2011 02:33 AM UTC

And Everyone Will Get a Unicorn, Too

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• by: Colorado Pols

Republican Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty released his economic recovery plan today, and while it sounds nice, apparently nobody bothered to check and see if it was actually possible. As The Associated Press reports:

The former Minnesota governor’s plan aims for a bullish 5 percent annual growth that would balance the federal budget while forgoing trillions of dollars in tax revenue. Pawlenty’s pitch assumes the benefits of his plan would kick in and eventually make up for its initial costs.

His own team acknowledged the assumptions were aggressive. One critic called it “patently ridiculous.”

“Growing at 5 percent a year rather than the current level of 1.8 percent would net us millions of new jobs, trillions of dollars in new wealth, put us on a path to saving our entitlement programs,” Pawlenty said in his first detailed speech on economic policy since he formally declared his White House ambitions a little over two weeks ago.

The economy averaged 4.9 percent growth between 1983 and 1987, and grew at a 4.7 percent rate between 1996 and 1999. A sustained annual growth of 5 percent for a decade would be unprecedented in modern times. [Pols emphasis]

Yes, T-Paw, growing the economy at 5% a year would be fantastic. You know what would be even better? Growing the economy at 90% a year. Since 90% annual growth is no more realistic than 5% annual growth, why not shoot for the stars?