If he runs, of course, and CNN’s Candy Crowley helpfully framed her question yesterday to leave that sliver of plausible deniability in her State of the Union interview with Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty joined fellow Governor Rick Perry of Texas to keep the pressure on Republicans to repeal and replace ObamaCare, either by passing an outright repeal in the next Congress (all but impossible in the Senate) or by defunding the bill. Perry also attacks the notion that a federal spending cut would put states in a bad position, because ObamaCare will impose massive new costs on states through its Medicaid expansion. Pawlenty also points out the “autopilot” increases will expand spending unless Congress and states take positive action to stop it:
CROWLEY: In the post-election analysis, most of the attention has been on changes in Washington, but the impact of the 2010 red wave was wide and deep. Now Republicans want to make it lasting. Friday, the soon-to-be House Speaker John Boehner sent out a call for reinforcement, a letter to Republican governors, writing, “We have an opportunity for unprecedented collaboration on behalf of the American people in the effort to stop the expansion of federal power in Washington in hopes of returning power and freedom to states and individuals.”
Joining me now, two of the country’s most prominent Republican governors, Rick Perry of Texas and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Thank you both very much for joining us.
Let me start with you, Governor Pawlenty. It seems to me that the subtext of John Boehner’s letter was you need to help us stop health care. You’re an outgoing governor, but I want to ask you if you think that’s a good idea.
PAWLENTY: I think it’s a terrific idea, Candy, and good morning to you and good morning to Rick. I think Obamacare is one of the worst pieces of legislation passed in the modern history of the country. I’m doing everything I can in Minnesota to stop, delay or avoid its implementation in my state, including signing an executive order saying we’re not going to participate unless required by law or approved by me. We’ve been given opportunities to early enroll in that program and take advantage of other aspects of it. We declined, and I hope between now and 2014 when it’s fully kicked in that as many states as possible do what they can to reel that program back, or that the new Republican Congress, better yet, can repeal it, because it’s dragging stuff into Washington, D.C., creating a new bureaucracy, spending a new — a lot of new money that they don’t have, isn’t going to work. We should have market-based solutions. …
CROWLEY: And if I could get just a yes or no from you, would repealing health care reform be a major part of your platform, should you run?
PAWLENTY: Yes, I think having health solutions dragged into Washington, D.C., top-down command-and-control, bureaucratically run entitlement programs that they can’t afford are a bad idea. I like markets, I like people being in charge of decisions, not the federal bureaucracy.
Perry makes an excellent point when Crowley attempts to argue that the federal government supplies 60% of the funding for Medicaid:
CROWLEY: But the government gives you 60 percent of the money to fund this. How does that add up to help you?
PERRY: We understand that’s our money. You talked about us taking stimulus dollars. We send hundreds of billions of dollars to Washington, D.C., and generally don’t get very much of it back. We’d just as soon not send as much money to Washington, D.C. Let us in the states come up with the ideas. I can promise you, Pawlenty and Jindal and Barbour and some Democrat governors across this country as well will come up with really good ideas about how to deliver health care. Why not let us pick and choose, rather than this one-size-fits-all mentality that comes out of Washington, D.C., with strings attached?
I’ve had a waiver for four years in front of Department of Health and Human Services, and haven’t gotten an answer yet, to free us from the strings from Washington, D.C. That is the issue at hand. Let the states be the laboratories of innovation and the good ideas will come out of that.
Where exactly does Crowley think the federal government gets its funds? Off of the federal money tree? They’re raising taxes on Texas citizens that could be better controlled in the state, with voters closer to its use and in better position for accountability. The same is true for transportation funding, education funding, and a host of other tasks for which the federal government has absorbed jurisdiction from the states over the past 68 years since Wickard v Filburn.
Pawlenty’s remarks made the top of the local news broadcasts last night, which I found rather interesting. He may have to stick around for a while if the gubernatorial recount is not settled by the end of the year, and with a Republican legislature for the first time ever, he may have a rare encore for a few decisions on ObamaCare.
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