Tim Pawlenty obviously wants to run for President since he's throwing in with Sarah Palin and the "deather" crowd. How pathetic is it when your lies are so bad that even Joe Scarborough is calling you out? After Scarborough asks Pawlenty if there is anything in the health care bills that will "pull the plug on grandma" Pawlenty follows with some fear mongering on the government "rationing care" and says the fears are not unfounded, and Scarborough lights into him.
Scarborough: But you know there are no death panels here though. Counseling is one thing. Having three people lining up saying "granny dies, grandpa lives", that's quite another. You can't get there from here.
Pawlenty: Well what happens Joe, what you call it or label it, but I think the facts are these. When you have a system like the United Kingdom where there are breast cancer...
Scarborough: But we don't. We don't Governor with all due respect. This does not give us a system like the United Kingdom. I'm talking specifically about this bill. How does this bill get us to "death panels"? You don't believe it does do you?
Pawlenty: Joe what if it becomes to expensive and then the trajectory of it is even close to what's being predicted ten years out that they can no longer afford all that they promised and somebody has to say scale back the care. And the federal government is now empowered to do that. When you look at examples around the world where that takes place there are concerns about care being cut back by a federal government institution and we could have a legitimate debate about whether that's good or not. I don't think it is.
Scarborough: Governor, what in this bill though, let's be specific, what in this bill leads us to that position, gives a bureaucrat that power ten years from now to make that decision. I know we're going to have to make excruciating decisions on health care. You've talked about it before, over the next decade because we've run out of money in this country, but what in this bill specifically, what provision in this bill specifically would lead anybody to rationally believe a death panel might emerge in a decade, based on this legislation?
Pawlenty: Joe, there is nothing in the legislation that directly says that, it's the indirect concerns that I'm trying to articulate that I think are at least worth raising.
And from TPM, it appears Pawlenty has now joined the "tenthers" as well. Pawlenty: It's "A Viable Option" To Invoke State Sovereignty, Keep Minnesota Out of Health Care Reform:
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), a possible presidential candidate in 2012, is now indicating that he could invoke state sovereignty and prevent his home state of Minnesota from participating in a federal health care reform effort if one passes, Minnesota Public Radio reports.
"Depending on what the federal government comes out with here, asserting the 10th Amendment may be a viable option," Pawlenty said, when asked about it by a caller on a Republican Governors Association conference call. "But we don't know the details. As one of the other callers said, we can't get the President to outline what he does or doesn't support in any detail. So we'll have to see, I would have to say that it's a possibility."
Pawlenty made it clear that he and other Republican governors will be more assertive about the 10th Amendment: "I think we can see hopefully see a resurgence in claims and maybe even bring up lawsuits if need be."
The same view -- properly called nullification, a doctrine dating back to the pre-Civil War days in the South -- had previously been expressed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).
What's next Tim? You going to be calling for secession for Minnesota along with your buddy Rick Perry down in Texas? Countdown covered the TPM tenther story. Video below the fold.
