Politics with Marc Ambinder

Daniella De Franco

Recently by Daniella De Franco

Sep 14 2009, 1:00PM

Pawlenty Two-Steps On Health Care And States' Rights

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is a self-professed "Sam's Club Republican"-- fiscally conservative. But when it comes to legislation, Pawlenty balks at buying in bulk. During a tele-town hall run by the Republican Governors Association on Friday, Pawlenty pushed against President Obama's national health-care reform proposals, invoking states' rights under the Tenth Amendment. He raised the possibility of filing Tenth Amendment lawsuits, but softened his remarks over the weekend, telling ABC's "This Week" that the federalism battle should not be in courts but that "in the political sense, in the common sense arena, we need to have a clear understanding of what the federal government does well and what should be reserved to the states." Pawlenty slipped in a jab at ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in his remarks, deriding the Bay State's health care as the nation's most expensive and a prime example of "Obamacare" gone awry.

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