In a speech that calls for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, a slashing of corporate and income tax rates, and emergency presidential powers to rein in spending, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty laid out his economic vision for the country in Chicago today.

With a renewed focus on the economy after troubling economic news over the past several weeks, Pawlenty ripped the performance of the current president and made a pro-growth case for why he should be the next one. The speech combined specific policy proposals with audacious, perhaps unrealistic, goals. And it was woven together with language that seemed to cast Barack Obama’s presidency as almost un-American.