Tim Pawlenty: 'Obamneycare' Modeled After Mitt Romney Health Care Law

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty criticized fellow GOP contender Mitt Romney on Sunday for his health care law, saying "Obamacare" was modeled after the plan the former Massachusetts governor passed in the Bay State.

"President Obama said that he designed Obamacare after Romneycare and basically made it Obamneycare," the former Minnesota governor said on "Fox News Sunday," a day before the two will face off in a GOP presidential candidate debate, adding that he does not understand why "they both continue to defend" their respective health care laws.

Romney signed into law Massachusetts' health care reform, a fact that is likely to haunt him through his presidential campaign. The one-term governor's health care law, like the president's, includes an individual mandate requiring citizens to buy health insurance or pay a penalty for going without.

"It's a dramatic overreach and I don't like that approach under Obamacare, and I've been a strong critic of it and I think we should repeal Obamacare in its entirety," said Pawlenty.

Romney has said his plan is different because it was for a single state, not a complex law for the entire country.

But some observers said the similarities between the two plans will make it difficult for Romney to win the nomination -- especially as conservatives routinely bash the president's health care reform law.

Rick Santorum, another Republican presidential hopeful, also questioned Romney's conservative bona fides, wavering on a question about whether he and former Utah governor and potential GOP presidential candidate Jon Hunstman are "true" conservatives.

"I think they have held positions in the past that have not been conservative, and I think they're going to have to account for that," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "I think what people are concerned about is that they saw in congresses in the past and presidents in the past who are Republicans [who] say one thing... and when they govern, they don't govern as conservatively as they talked."

Below, a video of highlights from the Sunday morning shows:

Sunday Show Mashup

 

 

Comments

[PS Nymn]

06:59 PM on 07/24/2011

Tim, what part of "nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to" do you NOT understand?

[olerealist]

05:40 PM on 07/04/2011

ROMNEYS efforts to politically divorce himself from “Romneycare” is nothing but laughable.
A report in the Wash. Post 7/4/11 however may make much of the furious “Obama Care” debate moot.
The mandating of individual health care insurance coverage has captured all the headlines in respect to the new law now the “law of the land”.
Now, however, several unheralded provisions have made the private insurance companies take a new look at their business model and this is also in part due to the complaints from the public over drastic premium increases.
They are now, only all but in name, for "cost control" using company wholly owned subsidiaries to form HMO’s along the line of Kaiser Permanente. Harry and Harriet will now have to get used to the idea of someone other than an MD having a hand in their medicine cabinet. Meanwhile our country and its citizens will be saving GOB’s of money and enjoying much better health. Hallelujah. Lobbyists may be driven to suicide.

[CarlIII]

01:20 PM on 06/14/2011

After last night's CNN snooze fest {Debate}, I think Pawlenty's nick name should be changed from T Paw to Chicken Paw

[XME]

01:39 AM on 06/14/2011

Politics always baffles me...how people can attack and attempt to discredit someone, then back them and defend them if they should become the nominee.

[CarlIII]

01:12 PM on 06/14/2011

it's called "Political Theater". Did you see T Paw chicken out of a fight last night. King gave him the opportunity to rip Mitt a new one. Chicken Paw couldn't even look him in the face. He did so much back peddling I thought he was gonna back into the overdone CNN displays. How could this sniveling coward ever be the Commander in Chief? Did you see Mitt smirking?

[ocrmom59]

07:12 PM on 06/13/2011

I think the republicans along with the teaparties candidates will have a hard time trying to win back the white house house. They have done what they ususally do, the react without thinking and when they try to think it is too late.

They unleashed their republicans/teaparties governors on the people and out came their big plans to destroy the american people. They did not have the sense to wait to see if they do get the white house back, they just went in with all the hateful things they could do.

By letting the cat out the bag, they let their followers see just what they are really are about and now they are turning on them. They never thought the people would turn on them so now they are trying so hard to put up a good front. That is why that all they can talk about is bring the president down and they really are bring themselves down. Those who were asleep has woke up and those who were trick has wise up. The Golden Rule is don't mess with Seniors and their money.

[Jamgrae]

06:34 PM on 06/13/2011

I don't understand the mindset of the current GOP in Washington. Isn't health care reform what everyone is trying to fix? If Romney's program worked, why not praise him? You mean the only plan that the GOP want to embrace right now referencing health care is to DO AWAY WITH MEDICARE..and to DO AWAY WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD? What has happened to the GOP party, why all this crazy talk and why are most of the candidates a can short of a six pack? Has Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party completely taken over an entire party? In the past, both parties arrived at things with compromise. Now, there is no competition to Obama at all....just candidates proposing lunatic ideas and talking crazy talk. The founding fathers would be so disappointed at this time. Let me say this one last time; No one is going to vote to end Medicare...medicaid...social security...planned parenthood.....abolition of civil rights.....abolition of child labor laws......the FDA....the FCC.....the TSA.....regulation.....etc. If the GOP continues, they will fall.

[Allen Reed Jensen]

05:26 PM on 06/13/2011

I don't recall any of the Democratic candidates in 2004 0r 2008 comparing one another to George W. Bush. Even in the 2008 primary season you didn't see Huckabee, Giuliani, and McCain jump on Romney until a month or so before the first contests took place. He's clearly desperate to raise his profile but he may want to wait or he'll be doomed to peak too early.

[Allen Reed Jensen]

05:08 PM on 06/13/2011

The gloves are off! Until now Pawlenty has always cited Reagan's 11th Amendment (Thou shall not attack another Republican) and then said what did in MN and what he'd do as president. After not getting anywhere in the polls he is getting desperate and wants to portray himself as Rocky Road (passionate and a fighter), not vanilla ice cream.

[tepeters]

02:50 PM on 06/13/2011

I think it was ABC that had an article about Pawlenty saying he does not have a fatal flaw as a presidential candidate. That is true he does not have a fatal flaw, he is a fatal flaw if he were to ever become president. Ask almost anyone in Minnesota.

[portabello]

02:02 PM on 06/13/2011

What is the deal with Republicans coming up with these third grade half-puns to make their case?

[Grunty1]

01:56 PM on 06/13/2011

[ think what people are concerned about is that they saw in congresses in the past and presidents in the past who are Republicans [who] say one thing... ] --- Come on Pawlenty, you are actiing like you have Sarah Palin level of intellect here. Everyone knows that Rushpublicans lie about their platform, because they know if there honest about it, no one would vote for them. Ask Scott and Walker.

[ObamaLover1]

01:26 PM on 06/13/2011

They talk about Sharia Law, but this brand of conservative relgious zealot ideology is just as dangerous..Its not Muslim's attacking woman health rights, people rights to marry who they choose; attacking teachers right to negotiate, people rights to healthcare...This country is under attack by conservatives pushing laws that are strangling the middle class.

[Oilvike]

01:19 PM on 06/13/2011

Romney doesn't walk the conservative walk? Of course not. That's why he's favored. The Republican base will vote for him because he talks the talk. And moderates and independents are expected to support him because his people can look them in the eye and say, "Don't worry. It's all talk to fire up the base. All talk. There will be no walk." There never has been and there never will be.

[DCR50]

01:00 PM on 06/13/2011

Pawlenty 2012; because the needs of the few outweigh the needs of many. VOTE Republican; it says "I GOT MINE!"

[Boston-liberal]

10:41 AM on 06/13/2011

Republican voters know on some level that the only thing that matters to them is to WIN. No explaining why they can throw each other's ideas and positions out the window.