The House Republicans' Medicare-killing plan has at least one GOP presidential hopeful a little tied up in knots over the fact that it actually retains some of the costs savings from the dreaded "Obamacare." Igor Volsky caught up with Tim Pawlenty in New Hampshire:
During a Tea Party rally in New Hampshire, likely presidential candidate and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (R) endorsed the Ryan proposal, saying, ?as a general matter and directionally, I think Paul Ryan?s plan moves in the right direction.? But when I pressed him over whether he supports maintaining some of the Medicare cuts that are part of health care reform, Pawlenty demurred, and took another question:PAWLENTY: I like Paul Ryan?s plan directionally. I don?t think it?s fully filled out in terms of the fact that we still have to address Social Security and when we issue our plan later in this process, it will have some differences[...]VOLSKY: Do you support the Medicare cuts in his plan that he keeps from Obamacare?
PAWLENTY: Anybody else have a question besides this guy?
In other words, "Get me out of this!"
Ryan would have made life a lot easier for these candidates had he not decided to crib from the Democrats' work on the Affordable Care Act. They can't say anything that is at all complementary about the ACA, and by extension, Romneycare. It's particularly difficult for Pawlenty to Ryan for his cost-cutting acumen that a) borrows from Obama, and that b) he himself criticized as "unrealistic assumptions regarding purported future cost-savings."
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