FANG: Governor, today liberals are demonstrating all over the country in what CBS has called a liberal version of the Tea Party. Their main complaint is that a lot of corporations aren't paying their fair share. For example, Bank of America, in 2009 paid nothing in corporate income taxes, same with ExxonMobil, GE, and a lot of other big corporations. Do you think corporations like Bank of America should pay their fair share? What are your thoughts on that?

PAWLENTY: Well actually the corporate tax rate in Minnesota and around the country is too high. And I think one thing we could and should do is-

FANG: You think zero is too high with Bank of America paying nothing?

PAWLENTY: We have the highest corporate tax rate, or one of them, in the world-

FANG: But they use loopholes and offshore bank accounts to pay nothing.

PAWLENTY: The things I've called for is reducing tax rates and looking at exemptions or special deals within the tax code that give certain companies privileges or benefits. I can't speak individually to any country, company would get in that regard, but I think one goal or direction is to simplify and reduce tax rates and clean out as many of the special deals as possible.

FANG: To be clear, do you think Bank of America pays too much in taxes already?

PAWLENTY: I don't know what Bank of America pays in taxes. I'll just say, setting aside Bank of America, the corporate tax rate in America is too high compared to our competitor nations.