2012 presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty was on Morning Joe this morning. Below are highlights of what he said on the show.
On his statements saying he'd sign the Paul Ryan budget planTim Pawlenty: Where is the president on this plan? You have the leader of the nation basically absent from the debate. He should step up.
Secondly, I will have my own plan announced relatively soon and will have differences from the Ryan plan. That's the one I will propose and work towards and like to sign as president. As president, my choices are something like Barack Obama's plan, which is nothing. In Obama-care, he flat out cuts Medicare. I have my own plan and will have my own plan and the one I will propose in advance.
Some features are we will remove Medicare paying for volume of procedures for better performance and better result, performance pay system. We won't have two choices either you buy it yourself or strain the current system. We'll allow people to stay in the current system if they want, allow a variety of choices and priced differently or choose what's best for them and their family and other features. That will be out shortly and that's the plan I'm advancing. Opposed to doing nothing or Paul Ryan’s plan, we have to fix the problem. We have a president who doesn't have courage to stand up and tackle this issue because he's afraid of it.
On how he's pollingI'm a new name and half the poll or Republicans still don't know my name or who I am. As I'm getting better known, we're getting more support. These early polls are a good measure. If these were good predictors, we’d have "President Giuliani" or "President Howard Dean." I'm a new face and we have people who ran last time have fairly catchable levels of support.
On Palin's possible entryWho knows? I don't know if she's running or not and don't know what the bus tour is or not. Whoever is going to get in, I hope they get in soon because I want the field set. The country is facing huge issues and stop worrying about polls and bus tours and see how we can fix the country and get the country back on track. The country in many ways is slipping away. We don't have a lot of time to fix it. The time is now, we need leaders and I won't worry about bus tours. We need to worry about the issues and fix the problems.