Game On: Pawlenty calls for phase-out of ethanol subsidies

By Greg Halvorson

Tim Pawlenty is serious. I've been saying for awhile that a ticket with Pawlenty, a two-term governor from Minnesota, at the top, and a galvanizer -- an Allen West or a Marco Rubio -- at the bottom, can bring the White House to Republicans. Going forward, boldness is needed, and in Des Moines, Iowa, Pawlenty came through. In a speech entitled "A Time for Truth," he kicked-off his campaign:

I'm here to tell Iowans the truth. America is facing a crushing debt crisis the likes of which we've never seen before. We need to cut spending, and we need to cut it -- Big Time. The hard truth is that there are no longer any sacred programs. The truth about federal energy subsidies, including federal subsidies for ethanol, is that they have to be phased out. We need to do it gradually. We need to do it fairly. But we must do it.

How refreshing: a politician from an Ag state refusing to pander to crony capitalist farmers. This is what America wants to hear, not a squish like Romney, or a polemicist like Newt, but a leader. Iowa Ethanol is the "third rail," but the third-rail may become "backing the status quo." Times, they are a changing....

There's an adult in the room.

Greg Halvorson is the founder of Soldiers Without Boots and hosts Freedom Warrior Radio on Blog Talk Radio.