Tim Pawlenty Says Mitch Daniels Wrong on Abortion Truce, Wants HCR Repeal

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 15, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Tim Pawlenty Says Mitch Daniels Wrong on Abortion Truce, Wants HCR Repeal

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 15
, 2010

St. Paul, MN (LifeNews.com) — In a new interview with Real Clear Politics, Minnesota governor and potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty says a fellow governor was wrong. He specifically said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was wrong to suggest an abortion truce is needed while the economy is addressed.

Daniels, himself a potential candidate to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama next election, told the Weekly Standard the next president "would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues."

"We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while," by casting social issues like abortion aside so the next president can focus on fixing the beleaguered economy.

But Pawlenty says that doesn’t have to be the case and that the next president can easily focus on both social and fiscal issues from a conservative perspective.

"I’m not sure what Mitch had in mind there but there’s a whole coalition of people and interests and issues that comprise the conservative movement and the conservative perspective," he said.

"I’m a fiscal conservative as well as a social conservative, so I don’t think it’s an either/or. I think it’s both," Pawlenty told RCP. "And right now the economy is a pressing issue for the nation, and we’re all primarily focused on that and jobs and the like, but that’s not to say there isn’t space to discuss other issues."

In the same interview, the pro-life Minnesota governor said he supports repealing the national health care law Obama signed that contains massive abortion funding.

"I strongly support the repeal of Obamacare. I think it’s one of the most misguided pieces of legislation in the modern history of the country," he said.

"I think it reflects bait-and-switch marketing by the Obama administration. They said that the healthcare system was broken, and we all agree with that. But the main concern for most Americans is that it’s not as affordable as it should be," Pawlenty added. "In the meantime, they’ve create a 1940s style, one-size-fits-all, top-down, command-and-control, bureaucratic, government-employee-run healthcare system that is going to cost more, not less."

Asked about whether he would run for the presidency against Obama, Pawlenty said, "That’s a decision I’ll make sometime early next year."

In his comments about a truce, Indiana Governor Daniels replied, "I don’t know," when asked if he would issue the executive order every pro-life president has done by instituting the Mexico City Policy.

He eventually walked back those comments and told reporter Michael Gerson he would sign the Mexico City Policy but he is sticking to his controversial comments calling for a "truce" on abortion.

"I would reinstate the Mexico City policy," Daniels said, adding that promoting abortion with money meant for family planning is one of "a thousand things we shouldn’t be spending money on."

 

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