During a political and economic event sponsored by the nonprofit group Strong America Now in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, three more Republican presidential candidates pledged to use Lean Six Sigma, if elected, to eliminate federal government waste and reduce the deficit.

The event attendees — former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and for Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain — signed the pledge at the June 18 event, which calls for all signers to undergo Lean Six Sigma training, to adopt the methodology to reduce federal spending by 25 percent each year and to pay down the federal debt by 2017. Several days before, fellow GOP presidential hopeful New Gingrich had become the first candidate to sign the document.

At the conference, Pawlenty described how he was the only candidate in the 2012 field who had successfully implemented Lean Six Sigma in state government and said that the methodology could be applied on the federal level to achieve 5 percent annual economic growth. He also called for a plan to reduce business tax rates from 35 percent to 15 percent and to consolidate six tax rates down to two.

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